They all grinned.
“They know we know who we’re playing against. I bet they think we’ll try something new. I say we see if Rick is fast enough to outrun some college boys. Same play, on one.”
The college guys were walking around like they were the big dogs. They tried to intimidate my guys, and I just smiled.
“Set, HUT!”
I saw right away they were going to jam my receivers and try and force me to throw the ball away. Rick was rocked at the line of scrimmage by a two-handed shiver to the shoulders. His defender had a cocky look on his face, knowing he’d taken Rick out of the play. Rick recovered, got a determined look on his face, and sidestepped his defender as he put on the jets. I saw they had double-covered him, so I pumped the ball to get his deep defender to bite. They wanted to show me who was best, and the easiest way to do that was to intercept me.
Rick had half a step on his college defender. It really wasn’t a fair matchup. His defender was as fast as Rick and was at least five inches taller. If I threw a normal pass, even with the half-step, the defender would be able to knock the ball down. I threw it a step long, hoping I would at the worst overthrow him. Rick put on a surge and gathered it in. He had enough speed to finish the play.
Coach Casey was livid with his players.
“I know you all want to eat. My favorite meal is a peanut butter sandwich. You know what goes with a peanut butter sandwich? JAM! Run it again!” he ordered.
We got back into the huddle.
“Okay, I think we have ’em where we want ’em,” I said.
“About ready to kill us?” Rick asked.
“Maybe, but let’s do it again. This time we might want to use Rick as a decoy.”
This was sandlot football at its best. We devised a play where each guy crossed. It was the lead guy’s job to take the brunt of the punishment as he tried to pick off both defenders and the underneath route could slide by and get some separation. If they were going to play us tight, then someone would come free, or so I hoped. I watched as two guys lined up on Rick.
“Set, HUT!”
Poor Rick got buried. The two guys in front of him shoved him to the ground. I saw the flag, so I wasn’t too worried. You’re not allowed to use excessive force in seven-on-seven football. We’re in shorts and t-shirts, for crying out loud. The defense saw the flag too, and let up. One of the good guys slipped between two defenders and I hit him on a slant. They were caught flat-footed and suddenly it was a footrace.
Coach Casey made us go two more times. The defense settled down and made us work for it. They finally got us when one of the receivers wasn’t ready for a pass and it bounced off of him. I might have put too much on it, but I elected to blame the receiver.
AT DINNER, I GOT A note saying Coach Casey wanted to meet me for breakfast and I was invited to bring my family if they were here. I sent Tami a text and she agreed to go with me.
Friday June 12
TAMI AND I ARRIVED at the inner sanctum of The Ohio State football program. Coach Lunt retrieved us from reception and escorted us through to the coaches’ area. We were taken to a small film room where they had a buffet set up for breakfast. I was introduced to some of the offensive coaches. We were enjoying breakfast when Coach Casey came in with two assistants.
“Finish your breakfast,” he said and then went through the buffet.
I was surprised when he had a bowl of oatmeal and a plate of fruit. Tami had the same thing, so I knew it was healthy. I wondered if he was eating it because of his reported health problems. I would imagine he’d watch his diet very carefully.
Over breakfast, he got to know Tami and me on a personal level. I was impressed that he talked to her more than he did me. Tami was very good at reading people. I find I sometimes hang back and let her meet new people. I could tell she liked Wes; at least, that was what Tami was allowed to call him.
After breakfast, the serious discussion began. He brought up the film of my seven-on-seven games. He ran through each play and gave me his impressions.
“Overall, I can only disagree with two passes. The first one against the staff was super-aggressive. Looking at your other options, it was either that or you should have thrown the ball away. The other pass was your last, where you simply threw it too hard. Everything else was right on.
“We compared your performance against all the other campers, and I have to say you were by far the most aggressive of the bunch. You went for the score every single time, and your long ball ... wow! For a kid who’s only an incoming junior, I’m impressed. Does your high school coach teach this philosophy of football?”
“No, I learned to do that from Coach Bud Mason. I was at the Elite Camp in Houston, Texas. One of my fellow quarterbacks was Ridge Townsend, who was rated the number 1 pocket passer and is headed to USC. Ridge is a surgeon on the field. He reminds me a lot of Roland and Flee in that he’d take what the defense was giving him. The difference between Ridge and Roland and Flee was that Ridge was so focused he never made a mistake. If he got into rhythm, then your only chance was to match him in scores.
“I was both Coach Mason’s nightmare and his poster child. I was his wild child and thrived in the drills where I had to avoid pass rushes and make plays. I was also the one who wasn’t afraid to take a chance and go downfield. Coach Mason’s philosophy shies away from the textbook drive. He believes big plays will score you a lot of points and run your opponent off the field. You can take the heart out of the other team with big plays. They keep track of 20-plus yard plays for a reason.
“The dink-and-dunk is nice and is a form of ball control used by inferior teams to keep the ball out of the hands of better opponents. The problem is it takes a lot of plays to get the same result. If you’re putting together long drives, then there are more chances for mistakes. We all saw that yesterday.
“Now, my high school coach is a defensive guy, and he believes in wearing down the opponent’s defense. So I’ve played both schemes and been successful. But given a chance, I will score on you,” I said.
“You do know I can game-plan to stop your long passes,” he challenged me.
“If we have similar talent, I’d give you a run for your money,” I said in all seriousness.
He looked at me to see if I was really that confident or if I was bullshitting him.
“You might beat him, but you’d be nervous, and he’d make you earn it,” Tami said, entering the conversation.
Coach Casey finally smiled and turned on video of me playing last year. He pointed out a few things he saw during drills throughout camp and things I did last year.
“What changed?” he asked.
“I hired Bo Harrington, a quarterback coach. Something he had me do was travel to Chicago over spring break and receive coaching from the Sports Training Institute of Chicago. They helped me with both football and baseball.”
He asked one of his assistants to go back to his office and get a folder. His assistant was back in a flash, and I was surprised when the folder had my name on it. He opened it up and checked some of the papers inside.
“I just wanted to verify a couple of things,” he began. “You’re a straight ‘A’ student, but you haven’t taken your SATs yet. I don’t have any reason to believe you can’t get into Ohio State academically. Your acting and modeling experience would make you a good spokesman for the University. Talking to your coach, he said you’re a leader and team player. I don’t think I have to worry about you being out at three in the morning and robbing a liquor store.”
I just bit my tongue because I sure hoped not. He looked me in the eyes.
“Do you have an interest in playing football at The Ohio State University?”
“Yes, sir.”