My date gave me an exasperated sigh. At least she hadn’t gotten up and run away.
“So, by now you know I’m a player just looking for a good time. If I were honest and said I was looking for a hookup, would that be any better?” I asked.
“Are you sure you’re interested in the type of girl who’d respond to that?” she asked.
“If it were just a hookup, and no one got hurt, I might. It would have to be discreet, though. I wouldn’t want the wife and kids to find out.”
“That’s probably a good idea. I’m sure my boyfriend would be a little upset too.”
“You don’t have a boyfriend,” I said with confidence.
“Just like you don’t have a wife and kids,” the woman said.
The server came and took our order. I flirted with her shamelessly while we ate, and she gave me pointers on pickup lines. We both knew this wasn’t going any further and didn’t even share our names or contact information. I did tell her to watch ESPN tonight, and she would see me play quarterback. I wondered if she would.
◊◊◊
When I returned to the hotel, Phil said that Coach Mason had requested that I meet him in one of the coaches’ rooms at the football field. I was the last one to arrive and found Jim, Wolf, Ty, Yuri, Roc, Johan, and Tim with Coach. I didn’t expect Coach Mason to want this group all together, because Tim was injured, and Yuri played defense. Coach Mason saw my confusion.
“We have some time this morning, and I wanted to talk to all of you about your future. I’ve been involved in high-level coaching for many years. It’s true that if you have talent, the NFL will find you. The problem is that it’s much harder to get there if you don’t get the right situation in college. Moreover, it will affect your earning power both in and out of football if you don’t come out of the right set of circumstances. While I don’t want to make you think that you all have a shot at playing on Sundays, college football can open doors for you outside of the game.
“The reason you’re all here is I’ve watched tape of you playing, and you all have the skills to play college ball. I want to help you clarify what you should be looking for in a football program.
“Let’s talk about a couple of programs that make me wonder, and I would suggest you stay away from. The two I want you to consider are Rutgers and Georgia. I’ve gotten the reports from scouting sites like 247Sports and Scouts on state-by-state recruit density. That means the number of 3-, 4- and 5-star recruits you can expect a state to produce each year. If you take that number and divide it by the number of FBS schools in the state, you can easily see why some teams are successful, and others aren’t.”
“What’s FBS?” Yuri asked.
“The NCAA Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, formerly known as Division 1-A, is the top level of college football. The FBS is the more competitive subdivision of NCAA Division 1, which itself consists of the largest and most competitive schools. There are 10 conferences and 128 schools in the FBS,” Coach Mason said, and confirmed Yuri understood before he moved on.
“If you have balanced recruiting classes, you need to have 20 to 25 players join your program each year. Looking state by state, numbers one and two are New Jersey at 44 quality recruits per year and Georgia at 38 per school. Since it’s the only FBS school in that state, if Rutgers could lock down the talent in New Jersey, they should compete for the Big Ten title every year. But they don’t. Georgia baffles me. They’re in the SEC and have the fan base and facilities to compete for national championships. All I can say is they must not have the coaching to pull it off.”
I didn’t comment on what I thought about Georgia.
“Then, at the other end of the spectrum is Wyoming. That state produces a quality recruit only about once every two years. Yet they seem to consistently have solid teams.
“What I wanted to point out is there are natural recruiting bases for certain schools that should make them competitive year in and year out,” Coach Mason explained.
“I thought that states like California, Texas, and Florida had the most talent,” Jim said.
“They do, but they also have more FBS schools in each state. California and Florida each have seven FBS schools, and Texas has twelve. Even with all the in-state competition, they still could fill their rosters with homegrown talent,” Coach Mason said.
“Coach, while all this is great, not all recruits are created equal. I can see why you’re explaining this, but we have a game to play. Maybe you could get to the point,” I said with a smile.
I’ve worked with Coach Mason over the last two years to some extent, and he was great with details. The man had so many facts stored in his head that he could talk for hours. He stared at me for a moment, and at first, I thought I’d pissed him off, but then he realized what he’d been doing.
“Fair enough. Let’s start with Roc and Yuri. You’re both underclassmen who have the potential to develop into good-enough players to be recruited. Talk to David about how he prepared. You both need to go to football camps this summer. You’ll both learn, but also the right people will see you.
“Tim, you need to focus on rehab and only rehab. I don’t want to hear anyone tell me about you going out for baseball or anything like that. You need to get that knee back to even better than it was before the injury. You also need to put on at least twenty pounds of muscle,” Coach Mason said.
“Yes, sir. I talked to my parents about this, and they agree with you. My focus will be on my knee and nothing else. I’ve spoken with the head trainer at State, and he’ll help me with rehab and workout plans.”
I didn’t know that, but it made sense. Our State University made an effort to help area high school athletes.
“Johan, you just need to put on about fifty pounds of muscle and start to contact colleges. You can’t wait for them to come to you. Is this your first year of football?” Coach Mason asked.
“Yes, I was homeschooled before this year.”
“If you want, I can make some calls on your behalf.”
I don’t believe Johan had thought about going to college. He suddenly appeared more intense and nodded. Coach Mason turned to Jim.
“Do you have an offer from Alabama?”
“Yes, sir, I do,” Jim said.
“Call them today and accept. Alabama has the best offensive line in college football. They’ll redshirt you your first year to help you get there physically. While you’re big enough for high school, you’ll need to add muscle to withstand the punishment of playing college ball.”
Jim nodded. I think he needed someone to tell him what to do because he’d been back and forth as to where to go. If Jim accepted Alabama’s offer, that would be the first crack in my grand scheme to get everyone to go to the same school. For that to happen, we would all need to go to USC. In the end, it would need to be what was best for each guy. I expected Coach Mason would sit down with Jim and talk to him and his parents. He then turned to Ty.
“At every level, there’s a place for a running back who can catch the ball. You’re also a hard runner who can run between the tackles. I would focus on improving your receiving skills and speed. A fast running back who can catch the ball will normally be defended by a linebacker. You can be a difference-maker. From what I’ve seen, it’s just a matter of time for word to start to get out before recruiters will be knocking down your door. I would suggest that you be careful about where you play your college ball. You need to be in an offense that throws the ball to their backs. We can sit down and look at some possible places for you,” Coach Mason offered.
“Wolf, there are two colleges that really value a tight end: Stanford and Michigan. Of those two, you’ll get more exposure at Michigan. That’s because the media is biased toward teams located closer to the East Coast. Then there’s the academic challenge of getting into Stanford. If your main objective is education, you need to consider that.”