David agreed, but the problem was that tens of thousands of people were on the brink of losing their homes every year in California. The reality was that only a tiny fraction did end up on the street.
Most prevention programs latched onto the idea they were saving people, so they erred on the side of helping as many people in need as possible. It was, in truth, a terrible waste of resources. So, if UCLA could predict more accurately, money could go where it was needed.
“UCLA has developed a statistical model that identifies the ones truly at risk,” Lexi continued. “They’ve moved it from a concept to the real world. They’ve partnered with the LA County departments of health, mental health, children and family services, and public social services to gather data. That data is used to create lists of people who need to be helped so they can be.
“Prevention, by its nature, is a onetime, relatively modest intervention,” Lexi said.
David was impressed with her research. He had learned that math could solve almost any problem, and here was an example.
“I learned from the homeless coalition back home that it was important to help people as soon as possible when they lose their housing. It’s called rapid rehousing. If you can give them a helping hand for a short period of time, it would allow them to find new housing and not end up on the streets,” David said.
“I think we should find a way to help them, especially women and children,” Lexi said.
“It sounds like a worthy cause. Find out what would be the most cost-effective way to accomplish that. I just made a lot of money selling my business interest. I would rather give it to charity than the state and federal governments.
So that puts a clock on it. You have to spend the funds before the end of the year,” David said.
“I’ll talk to your dad and Megan, now that you’ve given me the go-ahead,” Lexi said.
He had to go to practice, so he ended their conversation.
David would be interested in finding out what she came up with.
◊◊◊
This was David’s second trip to Utah. The last time had been for a baseball game, and they’d had a cold snap the
day before, and it had snowed. Today was a gorgeous day for football in Salt Lake City. When the team went out to warm up, they were greeted by the USC band, which had made the trip.
You could feel this was a big game as the fans began to file into the stadium, all decked out in red. By kickoff, the place would be packed. David was jealous of Matt because he loved this type of game.
Finally, the coaches called them in for final prep before kickoff.
Coach Merritt gathered them for some final words.
“There are a lot of people in the world who will take the challenge to climb the mountain. But when you get to the top of the mountain, you become the mountain. Because everybody is shooting at you. But the great ones can get to the top of the mountain and say, ‘I can be even better.’
“Today, Utah wants to knock us off our perch atop the South Division.
“Be ready to play, but don’t be disappointed if you don’t.
When you’re on the field, do your job. Hustle in and out of the huddle and stay focused. And defense, stay behind the damn ball! No one gets past you.
“Now, let’s go out there and win!” Coach Merritt shouted.
They were met by a chorus of boos as they came onto the field. Then the mood changed when it was time for the Utes to make their entrance. The team was led out by a motorcycle to the roar of their fans.
“It’s going to be loud today,” David said to Matt.
“We might have to go to the clap to hike the ball,” Matt said to agree.
They’d practiced doing that. If the wide receivers couldn’t hear Matt call at the snap count, they could see when his hands came together.
USC jumped out to a quick 14–0 lead.
The first touchdown was all Bill. Matt had dropped back and was forced to scramble. He had a Utah player at his feet, so he couldn’t step into his pass. Utah had two defenders trailing Bill, so when Matt underthrew the ball, they were in the perfect position to intercept it. Bill reached over both of them and pulled the ball back into his arms as he fell backward into the end zone. That was one of those plays that made ESPN’s top ten at the end of the day.
The next touchdown was created by the defense. Percy beat his lineman and flushed the Utah quarterback to have to step up into the pocket. Todd had blitzed, so he was in the perfect position to tackle him for a sack. As Todd wrapped Utah’s quarterback up, he brought his arm down on the ball, causing it to hit the turf. A freshman defensive lineman scooped it up and rumbled into the end zone.
That was when the tide turned. Utah scored two touchdowns and two field goals, with the last occurring from sixty-six yards with no time on the clock.
David could feel his team was deflated going into halftime. The Utes flashed more firepower in the first half than a Colombian cartel at a festival.
When they got to the locker room, there was more bad news: Marcus and Amari were both done for the day.
The third quarter found Utah in the end zone twice to put USC down 34–14.
Coach Merritt made the call to pull Matt because he’d gone 6 of 19 passing for a total of 89 yards. He’d thrown the one touchdown to Bill but thrown two interceptions.
Jaden was given a chance for the last quarter, as were David’s friends Big Cat and Chuy.
Though Chuy was classified as an H-back, they moved him to tailback. His job was to power his way between the tackles and pick up two to four yards per carry. During the fourth quarter, he had 10 carries and gained 44 yards and a touchdown. His rushing yardage total led the team.
Big Cat had one catch for three yards, but it also was for a touchdown. While Jaden had some rough spots in his performance, he did show improvement over last spring, and against a tough opponent.
Utah also scored one last time to make the final 41–28.
The final yardage was 205 for USC compared to 451 for the Utes. First downs and time of possession were also lopsided as the Utes collected 17 more first downs and held the ball 10 minutes longer than USC.
In all honesty, USC should have lost by a much wider margin.
Coach Merritt’s parting words were, “It’s amazing how people respond better when things go poorly than when they go well. It’s like the car salesman who sells twelve cars in a month. He isn’t motivated to set the record. He wants to go home, kick back, and drink a beer because he made his monthly quota. Survival is more in human nature than it is to be special good. The problem is, you have to have a lot of people who want to be special good to win a championship. It’s obvious we don’t have that.”
So much for the moral-victory talk.
◊◊◊
The plane ride back to LA was quiet, and being a nonstarting freshman meant David had to sit up front, close to the coaches.
David checked his ESPN app, and they had a clip from Coach Merritt.
“Players need to be listening to me and not you guys.
You know all that stuff you write about how good we are and all that stuff on TV and the Internet? It’s like poison.”
David agreed that there might be something to that. The LA press had been talking them up all week.
Then he heard Coach Merritt raise his voice just loud enough for his fellow coaches.