“Good. I want your best game. We’ll have to lose Mike tomorrow. I want to see what you have,” Larry said.
After dinner, we went out on the back patio and drank iced tea. I had Cassidy tell them about Cuba and Japan while I filled them in on baseball.
“I can’t imagine trying two sports at that level. How do you do it?” Larry asked.
“I’ve always loved baseball. I didn’t start playing football until I was a freshman.”
“Wow. I think I started before I could walk. My dad has always wanted me to be a quarterback. He played at San Diego State,” Matt shared.
“I’ve never gotten a chance to play baseball. I play in seven-on-seven leagues during the spring,” Jay said.
“If possible, I plan to play both in college,” I admitted.
“I would bet they’re not going to like that,” Larry said.
“Yeah, I got a taste of that today,” I said, and then shared with them what the Michigan offensive coordinator had said.
“I wouldn’t worry too much. If they want you, they’ll make sure you can do both,” Matt said.
“It’s not like it’s a secret.”
“I’m actually a little jealous. I keep reading about injuries and concussions playing football. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it,” Jay said.
“If you asked my mom, she would rather I not play football, but I love it,” I admitted.
Of the three guys, I liked Matt the best. I teased him about going to USC with my friend Ridge there. He had much the same attitude I did: Ridge would make an excellent valet for carrying his bags. I liked his confidence.
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Chapter 27 – Breakup Song Do-Over Thursday July 21
Today, I was put with the three quarterbacks from this year’s Elite 11. It’s easy to spot high-level talent when you see it. All three of these guys might be playing on Sunday at some point. I realized that I’d upped my game as well. One of the comments in the dossier Jeff gave me said something about me rising to the level of my competition. I understood what that meant today.
Yesterday felt comfortable. I eased into throwing and focused a lot of my time on helping my fellow quarterbacks and players get better. Somehow yesterday reminded me that when I first met Ridge, I thought he was a bit of a jerk. But he wasn’t; he was just focused. It wasn’t about him not being my friend or talking to me. It was about him doing his job and being the best quarterback he could be.
Jay, Matt, and Larry appeared to be friends by the way they talked between plays. Elite 11 does that. You’ve gone through a fairly intense experience together and have come out a better player on the other end.
They taught us at Elite 11 that camp was about you competing against yourself. That helped us avoid some of the pitfalls of competing against each other. There was no doubt that someone would be better than you were at something. It simply couldn’t be helped at that high level of talent. That didn’t mean that I wasn’t aware of the other quarterbacks.
What I saw in practice was that the other three quarterbacks were having a bit of a letdown and enjoying what they were doing. I was sure they were here to see how they measured up against me. Heck, they’d said so. It was just that they should’ve brought their A game.
Something else that was different today was that scouts from the various services were in the stands, along with college recruiters. Neither Larry nor I had picked our school yet. The opportunity to see us go head-to-head was just too good for the top programs to pass up. The rumor was that Larry was a lock to go to Clemson, which was also one of the schools on my list. It looked like they had their whole coaching staff here.
I asked Moose later how they all got into Michigan’s camp, and he said it was because it was at Lincoln High, and Coach Hope had wanted it open. Not for me, but for the other players we had who wanted to play football after high school.
From the get-go, I dropped into the zone and focused on every single throw. I fixated on what Bo Harrington and Bud Mason had taught me about throwing technique, footwork, and football awareness, and could tell I was much better than I was yesterday. I glided in the pocket, and when I made my decision to throw, the ball was out of my hand with a purpose. As well, I followed my read progressions, and if nothing was there, I threw the ball away or dumped it off. I was much more disciplined than I used to be. Coach Mason had to be smiling somewhere.
Towards the end of the morning practice, they sent rushers at us to see us move in the pocket. Jay was very much the run-first type of quarterback. His problem was just that. Instead of using his feet to get free of the rush, he would take off and become a running back.
Matt was the polar opposite. He was the classic pocket passer who hung onto the ball too long. In his dossier, it said he was a tough kid. He would have to be, with how he stood tall in the pocket. Even pocket passers need to be able to move to buy themselves enough time to throw when they had rushers crashing in around them. A little shift or stepping up in the pocket can make all the difference in the world. Moving was the one skill Matt needed to learn.
Larry showed why he was named the top dog out of Elite 11. He was more of a pocket passer than I would ever be—he tended to stay in the pocket, but he moved enough to be effective.
It was evident that I had much more big-play ability when I went all Captain Chaos on them. Coach Mason had taught me that the vertical game destroyed defenses. It probably wasn’t fair, because if you gave me my receivers and running backs with the addition of Damion, I was going to kill you. Roc was sneaky-fast, and Damion was a freak. Wolf was a big, sure-handed target who had caught my passes for the past three years. If you rotated in Jake, Ed, and Ty, I had three more players who could take a short gain and turn it into something long.
I showed Jay, Matt, and Larry why I’d won last year at Elite 11. I still thought it was bullshit they named me Co-MVP because in head-to-head, I beat Wes every time at Elite 11, and after.
In the morning session, I’d gone last. After my demonstration was done, my three rivals were huddled together, talking earnestly. They’d realized their mistake, and when they saw me look over, they just shook their heads. I would bet the competition was going to heat up this afternoon. I’d just laid the gauntlet down, and these three were too much like me. They couldn’t let the challenge go unanswered.
God, I loved this!
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Michigan had gotten smart and had our booster club cook lunch. You had the choice of hamburgers, hot dogs, or barbecued chicken. I decided on the chicken, baked potato, and a big salad, and saw the other quarterbacks do the same. The four of us found a table.
It felt like old times when Jeff pulled up a chair. Well, maybe not exactly, because he had his camera crew following him around.
“How much trouble did you get into for switching camera crews?” I asked.
“They will ‘talk’ to me when we meet next week.”
“What’s the deal, Dawson? Why are they following you around?” Jay asked.
“That’s a good question,” I said, turning to Jeff.
“He’s an attention hound. He begged us to do it so he’d look like a big deal,” Jeff teased.
“I might not be shy, but I didn’t ask for this,” I said to defend myself.
“No, he didn’t. I did an end-run on him and talked to the school about doing a documentary on the football program at Lincoln High. They’ve taken what at best was an average football program and turned it into a winner. David only seems to be the focus because he’s the quarterback. It doesn’t hurt that he’s done other things and is so highly sought-after. I may even get to follow him to Mexico,” Jeff informed me.
“You know, you really should interview some other people. Cassidy Hope comes to mind. Without her, we wouldn’t be in nearly as good shape as we are. I would bet without her working us out over the offseason, we would’ve lost two or three games last year alone.”