We were in man coverage, and the receiver I was covering did a down-and-out. Eastside’s quarterback had been flushed from the pocket when Bryan Callahan beat his guy. I saw the quarterback’s eyes and could tell he decided to throw the ball away out of bounds. When it left his hands, I reacted. I dove to catch the ball. As I launched, I knew I would end up out of play. That was when I did the dumbest thing you can do in footbalclass="underline" I tipped the ball back onto the field.
We were taught to knock the ball down since you didn’t want to have what happened to Georgia happen to you. Players assume the play is dead and let up. A tipped ball caught by the offense in that situation can mean disaster. Unfortunately for Eastside, Ed gathered it in. Of course, later, everyone assumed I’d intended to do that. Who was I to tell them any different? I just never confirmed it.
The only player who had a chance to stop Ed after the tip was their quarterback, but he was no match for Ed’s open-field running skills. Two minutes into the second half, we were up two scores, 28–14.
I think even the most rabid Eastside fan knew this game was over. Eastside never gave up, but I put on my imaginary cape and played Captain Chaos to the hilt. I was 24 of 29 passing in the second half, and we scored five more times to make the final 59–14.
This was one time I was glad Coach Hope hadn’t pulled the starters.
◊◊◊
I hurried to shower because we had to catch a plane for our official visit to Clemson. The press wanted to talk to Ed and me, so I made a brief appearance. My dad stuck his head in and told everyone we had to leave. I left Ed to explain how he was tonight’s hero. He deserved it.
Since it was an official visit, the moms were coming with us. I’d pulled Fritz and Chuck as my security. I was surprised when my girlfriend joined us. Not that I didn’t want her to go; I just hadn’t been told.
Traveling to Clemson turned out to be a pain in the butt. The nearest airport was the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, 46 miles from Clemson. It was nearly three in the morning when we finally got to our hotel.
Brook made me carry her bag to her room. I put it next to her bed and began to leave.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To bed.”
“I have a bed,” she said, pointing.
It took me a moment …
“Uh, yes, you do,” I said, smiling.
She soon had my shirt off and then looked at my torso with concern. I had the beginnings of some serious bruises.
“Does it hurt?” she asked.
“Only when I think about it. Right now, I’m not thinking about it.”
It was her turn to take a moment to figure something out. Then she smiled. It didn’t take long for Brook to show me why I’d made the right choice in picking her for my girlfriend. If there were awards for the all-time best, she would’ve earned it.
◊◊◊
Chapter 16 – What Happens on the Recruiting Trip Saturday October 1
I was startled awake by a voice.
“Da-vid,” the singsong voice called.
My eyes blinked open, and I saw Brook’s smiling face.
“Hey, what time is it?” I asked as I tried to clear my mind.
“Seven.”
I groaned because I’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep. Brook was to blame. We’d decided to sleep in my room because Brook thought we’d made too much of a mess in her bed.
“I’m horny,” she announced.
Sleep was overrated. What was the saying? ‘I can sleep when I’m dead.’ Fortunately, Mr. Happy seemed to be the one awake, so I let him take over the body.
Brook squeaked when I rolled on top of her but was soon an active participant. We became quite energetic and soon had the headboard banging against the wall. I had an evil thought because I knew that Tim and Wolf were sharing the room next to us.
“Hotness! Yes … that’s it! Just like that!” I called out.
Since I’m not ordinarily vocal during sex, that caused Brook to give me a funny look. I leaned down and kissed her neck.
“Tim and Wolf can hear us,” I whispered.
“Yes,” she hissed. “Give it to me, Big Daddy!”
We sounded like we were in a bad porno. I kicked myself for not finding an appropriate soundtrack. I soon discovered that Brook wasn’t lying when she suddenly reached her summit and screamed my name.
“David!”
I wasn’t far behind and began to grunt like a wounded water buffalo.
We heard pounding through the wall, and both began to giggle.
◊◊◊
We all met in the lobby, where Wolf spotted Larry Dell, who had attended our Michigan camp at Lincoln. Larry was ranked just behind me in all the recruiting ratings. He’d won the Elite 11 competition this year while I’d been playing baseball.
“Hey, I guess everyone wanted to see Clemson beat Louisville today,” Larry said as he and his parents met everyone.
Today’s game was supposed to be something special. Louisville had a freshman quarterback who was playing lights-out. There was talk that he might actually win the Heisman. When we picked this game, we didn’t have any idea he was going to be so good.
Both teams had shone this year. Louisville was currently ranked number 3, and Clemson was at number 5. We expected a good contest with plenty of offense. This game had National Championship implications written all over it. Larry was right; this was the one everyone wanted to see.
When we were scheduling our trips, we debated whether we would rather see Clemson play Florida State or Louisville. If Florida State had been playing at Clemson, we would’ve passed on the Louisville matchup. We agreed now that we’d been lucky.
“Have you made it official, or are you still stringing Clemson along?” Wolf asked, wanting to know if Larry had made his decision.
“I’m 95 percent sure it’s Clemson, but I won’t sign until the spring.”
“Smart move. If there’s a coaching change, you want to keep your options open,” I said.
At this level, the NFL might come along and steal Coach Swank away.
Clemson also had an embarrassment of riches at the quarterback position. Their current starter was a lock to make it to the NFL. They had Chuck Tess backing him up. Chuck had been one of the quarterbacks I’d competed against at Elite 11. They were recruiting Larry, this year’s winner, and it was reported that they were pursuing the top junior in next year’s class. No other school in America could boast that kind of talent at my position.
Larry also had to worry about me. I’d already shown that I could outplay him at the Michigan camp. If I picked Clemson, it might change not only Larry’s mind but also the minds of the juniors they were recruiting. While top talent wasn’t afraid of competition, reality had to set in at some point. There just weren’t enough footballs to go around.
If I were being honest with myself, I’d acknowledge it might be me who ended up on the bench behind one of these studs. I was taking off next fall to make a movie. I also wanted to play baseball, which would cut into spring football. That would give Larry all fall and extra practice in the spring to learn the system and play with their receivers every day. It might be enough of an advantage to push me behind him on the depth chart.
I also had to consider the juniors. There were two quarterbacks in that class that people were talking about as being extraordinary. If what I heard was right, they might be better than I was. Larry and I could both find ourselves fighting for a backup job. That was how serious the competition was about to get at Clemson.