“What happened?” Willy asked.
Alex shared his collapse in a match over the summer and the team, and his dad, wanting to confirm he could play. As he was finishing up, John Johnson—probably the dumbest person to ever get into USC—and Matt walked in. John said something to Matt, who retaliated by giving the big tackle a playful shove. John dropped his sports drink, spilling its contents all over the floor.
“Rookie, go get something to clean that up with,” Matt said to Alex.
Alex rolled his eyes and flipped Matt the bird.
“Clean it up yourself. I’ll have to clean up all your messes when you can’t get it in,” Alex said, referring to having to come in when the offense failed, making him kick a field goal.
“I always get it in,” Matt said with a nasty smirk, taking it to the gutter.
David was about to deck Matt for being an ass when Willy stepped in.
“Based on what I’ve seen, Dawson is better at that than you are.”
David cringed because he knew that Matt was still a little raw over Crystal dumping him over the summer.
“Dude, you get an unsportsmanlike penalty with that one,” David said to surprise the room. “Matt does just fine with the ladies.”
Matt gave him some side-eye and then puffed up.
“I was thinking about tagging a jock bunny. Does anyone know if any are in the dorm?”
“Go to my room,” David said with a smile. “Craig should be finishing up with his.”
‘Two birds with one stone,’ David thought, satisfied he’d dodged pissing Matt off.
“Thanks,” Matt said and then turned to John. “Clean up your own mess, and we shouldn’t be hazing the freshmen.”
“But …” John started.
“You heard him. Matt’s one of our leaders. If he says no hazing of freshmen, then it stops,” Willy said.
In David’s mind, hazing was a stupid tradition designed to show the new guys that the ones already there were the top dawgs. If everyone was supposed to be equal, how could that be fair?
David followed Matt to his room while sending Craig a message to warn him that they were on their way.
DSquared: ‘Matt calls next’
When they reached the door, Craig opened it in just his underwear. A blond pulled her shirt over her head, giving them a glimpse of her breasts. Once her shirt was on, she lit up at seeing the top two USC quarterbacks.
“Did the two of you want to go play?” she asked.
David internally flinched because her breath smelled like cum.
“I don’t feel like sharing,” Matt said. “Do you want me to send her back when I’m done?”
David shook his head ‘no.’
“I’m going to take a nap before dinner and then watch film afterward, so I won’t have time.”
He could see that Matt understood that David was focused on winning the starting job, but in the end, getting laid won out over recovering from today’s practice.
“Your loss,” Matt said and then offered the jock bunny his arm.
After they left, David commented, “I now understand why you aren’t supposed to kiss them.”
It took Craig a moment to puzzle out what David was talking about, and then he blanched. David chuckled when his roommate, obviously squicked out, grabbed his toothbrush and mouthwash and went to the bathroom to wash his mouth out.
◊◊◊
Tuesday and Wednesday’s practices mirrored Monday’s. David and Matt were almost even in their head-to-head battle for the starting role. Matt shone in the short passing game. He showed poise in the pocket and never seemed to get rattled. Matt threw an accurate ball with touch. He was a pure pocket passer who was very good at his read progressions, making him extremely hard to defend against.
David hadn’t shown his entire skill set because quarterbacks wore red jerseys and weren’t allowed contact. Being six-four and 240 pounds, he was bigger, stronger, and faster than Matt. Those advantages would only become apparent when David used his legs to run. What made David confident that he would eventually be named the starter was that just dropping back and passing, he was going head-to-head with Matt and holding his own.
The other area David felt he held a significant edge in was leadership. Matt might have known most of his teammates longer, but David’s natural people skills had his fellow players listening to him. He knew that Coach Stackhouse had Coach Merritt’s ear, and she had mentioned to Matt several times that he had to be more vocal on the field.
On Thursday, practice changed because Coach Merritt wanted to get a jump on preparing for UNLV. That meant that the starters began to get more snaps. Of David’s fellow freshmen, Bear, Big Cat, and Chuy looked to get playing time early.
Bear, aka Jerry Barber, played left tackle, and John, their starter, was suspended for the first game. Yesterday, the second-string tackle had injured his shoulder and would be out for two weeks. Since the third-string player had been lost for the season with knee surgery, it was next man up. That man was Bear.
Big Cat, as Nick Collins was known, played the slot, and his talent had shown through. Tyrell, their starter, had suffered a concussion during the first scrimmage, and it was lingering. The hope was that he would be back next week, but Big Cat would play with the starters in the meantime.
Chuy, as Jesús Diaz preferred to be called, was recruited to be an H-back. Not to be confused with a running back, an H-back was not primarily a runner. Chuy’s role was a combination of fullback and tight end. His principal role was to be a blocker or receiver. USC didn’t have anyone quite like him on their roster, so he would see playing time when they needed his particular skills. The most obvious was in a short-yardage situation where an additional blocker was called for.
When it came time for David to work with the first unit, he went to Coach Thomas.
“Let me take off my red vest when we practice RPO. I’ll need to be ready for live hits when we play UNLV,” David suggested.
Coach Thomas looked over at Coach Merritt, who nodded his assent. Before David went in, Coach Thomas stopped the practice.
“Dawson is going to go ‘live.’ I want to remind you that he is your teammate, and there is no need for a little extra or a cheap shot. If he gets injured … let’s just say that tomorrow will be Cassidy Hope for the full practice. Am I understood?!”
“Yes, sir!” came back as a thundering roar.
The whole defense had smiles on their faces because David wasn’t bashful about pointing out their deficiencies. They also liked that he could take them trash-talking back.
“Coach didn’t say that you can’t be dinged up,” Percy called out from his defensive end position.
David smiled because the first play was going right at Percy. RPO stood for run-pass option. It was a play where David had the freedom to either hand the ball off or pass it based on what the defense did. Most times, he made the read before the snap of the ball. Other times it would change, and he would take advantage of an opportunity.
The play was designed to be a simple option to the running back, Marcus, with the outlet being either a pass over the middle to the tight end, Chuy, or out on the flat to the wide receiver, Bill.
David had the offense huddle up as he called the play. Regardless of what Coach Thomas said, he glanced over at the defense and knew they were out for blood.
“Bear, do you want to earn the whole offense a steak dinner?”
Bear looked at his teammates, and they were all nodding encouragement.
“Yes.”
“If you pancake Percy, I’ll have everyone over and grill steaks on the roof. If you do it again, I’ll have the offensive backups over. If you do it a third time, all the offensive coaches will eat on me,” David decided.
A pancake or knockdown was where you put the defensive lineman on their ass.
“Why are you doing this?” Bear asked.
“Because we are going to set the tone right now and for the game next Saturday. Our offensive line will knock the crap out of the defense,” David said.