We only got through about half the speed drills today before camp started. I promised to meet them again tomorrow morning to do the rest.
Bo came out with a smile on his face.
“Am I getting an offer?” I asked.
“Yep,” was all Bo said.
I did a little happy dance and fist pump. Flee, Tim and Roland came over to see what I was so happy about. Bo told them, and they congratulated me.
Then the guys wanted the scoop on each other’s date.
“Mine got drunk and passed out on me,” I said.
“Yeah, she wasn’t happy to wake up and not find you there,” Tim said.
“I left her a note.”
“Don’t worry about it. She’ll call you. Debby and I went to their sorority and watched a DVD. Have you guys watched The Notebook?” Tim asked.
“Are you serious? I would never see her again,” Flee said.
“Run, boy,” Roland said.
“I think it’s a rite of passage girls make you go through. If you survive that movie, you can put up with anything,” I said.
“Man, I thought it was just me. I wanted to poke my eyes out by the end,” Tim complained.
“Scarlet is waaay too freaky for this boy. I have to go home and face my momma,” Roland said.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any details out of him. I just hoped he wasn’t scarred for life. We didn’t bother asking Flee because he had too big of a smile on his face. He was dying to tell us, and it made it funnier when we ignored him.
THE AFTERNOON BROUGHT my version of football heaven. We were playing seven on seven. But instead of just doing my usual, I snuck in and played defense. Towards the end of practice, they were letting the other quarterbacks get a turn before I got mine, so I took advantage of the opportunity. Coach Wilson saw me slip over and was amused when I was put on one of the defensive teams.
It probably wasn’t fair because I had seen Tim, Roland and Flee play. They were all very good at playing the short game and controlling the ball.
I got Tim first. We called him ‘Cadillac’ for a reason. He was silky-smooth in the pocket, and if you let him just throw the ball, he would methodically take you apart. We huddled up to call the defense for the first play.
“I’m going to blitz him,” I said.
“You can’t blitz in seven-on-seven,” our linebacker said.
“Sure you can. I’ll just tag him before he can pass. I promise I won’t hurt him.”
We called a zone defense to help out in case I didn’t get there.
“Set, HUT!” Tim called.
I was off like a shot. The look on Tim’s face was priceless. He had no idea I was playing defense, let alone messing with him. He was pissed and threw the ball at me. In self-defense, I caught it—to the amusement of everyone.
“Damn! Your stats are going to suck,” I said as I tossed the ball back to him.
“Big talk, David. Let’s see if you really can play defense,” he shot back.
I saw them insert a receiver onto Tim’s team. I warned our defense that Tim would be coming for me. We decided I would cover my guy one-on-one, with deep support.
“Set, HUT!” Tim called.
The guy I was lined up across from looked to be about six-one, and about my weight. He was ripped. I could tell I wasn’t going to muscle him, but I was going to bump him to see what he was made of. Sometimes these strong-looking guys were paper tigers. They looked good, but couldn’t back it up.
On the snap, he tried a swim move to get around me. Bill had used that move on me a number of times, so I was right there with him. I heard ‘ball’ and assumed it was away from me. I was wrong. I saw my guy go up, so I put both hands up to try and stop him. He snagged the ball with one hand, and I was only able to tag him to end the play.
The next play was more of the same. He and I battled at the line, and then he did this triple move that got me turned around. Luckily, he ran into our linebacker, or he would have scored.
Crud! This guy was eating me up. I wasn’t lying down, though. On the next snap, I didn’t bump him, which made him almost fall down. When he stumbled, I gave him a shove, and he went sprawling. Boy, was he pissed!
I think he was just playing with me up to that point. Everyone was getting into it. On the next play, one moment he was there, and the next he was gone. He did this nifty duck-under move and I completely missed my bump. Once he was past me, it was over. Tim was doing his six-shooter routine. Who can figure out people from Texas?
The coaches took mercy on me and pulled me out along with the receiver. I was introduced to Arty Keeper, the first-round draft pick off last year’s Alabama team.
“You guys are terrible. I had no chance out there. No wonder he caught three balls on me in four plays. My only defense was to help him fall down,” I said.
“Don’t feel bad, he does that to everyone,” Coach Peters said.
I GOT SERIOUS WHEN it was finally my turn. I think I surprised the guys because I’d been joking around and cheering everyone on up to this point. Bo put the GoCam on me and sent me out to do my bit. I made a point of throwing to all six of my receivers. They were here to show off their talents also, and I was more than happy to help them showcase their abilities.
Finally, learning what Tim did with his feet made the session almost too easy. For my last play, I uncorked a forty-yard throw on a rope to showcase my arm strength. I think I surprised my receiver because he was expecting a normal pass. I gave him credit for hanging onto it. After that, we were done for the day.
WHEN I FINALLY GOT a chance to check my phone there was a message from Ashley. She wanted to grab a quick bite to eat and then go back to the sorority and watch a movie. I called her back and made sure it wasn’t The Notebook. To be honest, it could have been, and I would never have remembered. Ashley and I made out on the couch all evening. She wanted to keep it semipublic because she wasn’t quite ready to jump into bed with me. When I walked home, I think I could have pounded nails with Mr. Happy.
Friday June 26
WHEN I GOT UP, I HAD a text from Bill Daniels, the strength and conditioning coach, letting me know he’d take care of working with the campers this morning. I was grateful because Bo wanted to talk to me. We met out in front of my dorm and he took me to breakfast.
He pulled out the video from the day before.
“What defense are they in?” he asked.
“Tampa 2.”
“Watch the two deep guys,” he said.
In the Tampa 2, the safeties were each responsible for their half of the field. The weakness of the defense was center deep because the safeties tended to drift towards the sidelines to help the cornerbacks out since they played tough against the run. These guys were staying at home and shutting the middle down. It made sense because they knew this was going to be a pass play. The corners wouldn’t have to worry about the run.
“Run it again,” I said.
Then I realized this was Alabama’s defense. I’d watched them play Missouri in the SEC Championship game. The weakness in their defense was deep sideline plays. Missouri had tried to throw that pass only a couple of times, but their quarterback just couldn’t get it there or threw it out of bounds. Dad had gotten irritated with me because I couldn’t believe they weren’t going back to the play.
Bo smiled when I caught on. We were going to light them up today. He diagrammed a couple of plays to take advantage of it.
I TOLD THE GUYS WHAT Bo and I discovered. They didn’t believe me until they watched a couple of other quarterbacks play their seven-on-seven games. The good news for us was we weren’t playing against the actual Alabama defense. These were high school kids who didn’t know all the ins and outs of how to play it.