Junior Year Box Set

The next play we counted on the same type of rush, but up the middle from Todd’s replacement. This time we ran a trap play. Bryan pulled from his guard position and caught the middle linebacker unaware. Bryan put his shoulder pad into the defender’s armpit and planted him into the turf. Ty was into the safeties before anyone touched him.

Coach Diamond used King’s aggression against them as we marched down the field. Finally, I hit Ty on a little flare out of the backfield to score from the 6 yard line. We were now up 23–16.

We held King to a three-and-out. Their punter kicked a tremendous punt and pinned us back at our own 3 yard line. This put us in a dangerous position because if they could get a tackle behind the line of scrimmage, we could give up a safety or worse. Coach Diamond called for a goal-line formation with me under center and both Ed and Jake behind me with Ty in the Power-I. We even pulled in Wolf as an extra blocker. We planned to try to punch out a yard or two so we would have more room to work.

King brought in an extra lineman and bunched up to stop us. On the snap, I stuck my hand into Ty’s gut and watched as he was buried under a giant pile in the center of the field. King didn’t realize that the ball was actually in my right hand and rested on my butt. Roc acted like he would try to block his cornerback and fell down, to my dismay. In my head, I screamed for him to get up. It took all my acting abilities not to take off. I trusted that Roc would get his act together and get off the ground.

At that moment, their defensive end saw the ball. Having no choice, I began to run for my life as King figured out the ruse. As I ran, I looked downfield and saw Roc flying down the field. I remembered my training. The key to throwing on the run was your footwork. I slowed down and threw the ball as far as I could while focusing on my technique. Thankfully, the King defender didn’t blast me after I’d released the ball.

Roc was past the 50 yard line with both the safety and corner on each side of him. He reached for the ball, and the safety grabbed for his near arm to prevent the catch. Roc snagged the ball out of the air with his free hand and pulled it in. Roc tucked the ball and fought off the tackle from the cornerback. The safety tangled up with his teammate, and Roc stumbled too. I began to jump up and down and ran down the field as Roc gathered himself and ran in for the score. We were now up 30–16.

King ended up being the one that crumbled under the pressure. I threw two more long passes for scores to Roc to make the final 44–16. Roc had scored 4 touchdowns and had 13 receptions for 408 yards. That wasn’t bad for a freshman receiver, and he and I were named co-MVPs of the game. I really wished they had just given it to him because he deserved it. Yuri also earned recognition; he had performed great. He had fifteen tackles, three for a loss.

The three of us joined Coach Hope for an interview on the field with Margaret Chin. Both Yuri and Roc looked scared to death, so I hogged the interview. I suspect Margaret saw how frightened they were and let me answer for them.

“What do you think about your resounding defeat of King High School? Do you believe you should be rated in the top 25?”

“I think we got lucky and King underestimated us. I want to point out these two. They’re both underclassmen, and you saw what they’re capable of. I believe we can expect that Lincoln High will be a power in the years to come if we have freshmen and sophomores that can play like this. If they keep this up, we might even find them girlfriends,” I teased.

They both looked like they might die on the spot. I gave Margaret a deadpan look.

“Was it something I said?” I asked.

They both lunged for me, and I danced away, laughing, leaving Margaret stuck with Coach Hope as Roc grabbed me to slow me down and Yuri brought me down. The next thing I knew, I was under a pile of my teammates. Thankfully, Wolf and Jim saved me, and we all ran to the stands to thank our fans. This was almost better than winning State.

◊◊◊

After I showered and dressed, they had arranged an after-game press conference. There must not have been much going on as far as other local sporting events because the room was packed. They had the usual questions about what it felt like to win and be a top-rated player. I spotted Jeff Delahey and winked at him as I did my humble All-American boy routine. Then things took a turn.

“Bill Kelly, with Sports Illustrated. Can you tell us what’s your relationship with Alabama?”

“I attended a football camp there this summer, and they made me an offer. Bo Harrington was my personal quarterback coach until Alabama hired him to coach their quarterbacks,” I said.

Jeff had taught me it was better to get out in front of something and be honest because the cover-up was what sunk you.

“So Alabama hired your personal coach?” Bill asked.