Chapter 46

I was dead tired when my alarm woke me at seven am Sunday morning. Kelly was sound asleep. I hustled upstairs and got the shower before Trevor or Jay. The three of us were expected to have breakfast with the coaches, parents and recruits this morning.

Trevor and I both left our cars in the parking lot by our apartment instead of returning them to the East Parking Deck. Nobody got ticketed for parking there on a weekend. Trevor volunteered to drive the three of us over to the hotel for breakfast.

The breakfast at the hotel was tasty. Everyone loaded up and caravanned back to the Lasch Building after breakfast. The recruits were going to get their one on one interviews with Coach Burton. The guides were assigned to keep the recruits entertained while they waited their turn.

I took on Nick Holmes in a game of pool while the others relaxed, played foosball or video games. Nick was about the same skill level as me, not too bad but not an expert. The game was friendly with an edge of competition.

"What did you think of Penn State?" I asked.

"I was very impressed," Nick answered. "You have great facilities here. The stadium is great. I wish I had been able to visit on a weekend when you guys played a game. It must be a real trip to stand in there when it's full."

"It is amazing," I agreed.

"I like Coach Burton," Nick continued. "The system you run here would suit me."

"You have a good arm," I agreed. "I think you would be very successful with the kind of offense we run here. I enjoyed working out with you yesterday."

"You're a hell of a receiver, Kyle," Nick answered. "I'd love to play with you if I came here. Of course, that won't happen given our ages."

"You met Bruce and Brian last night," I countered. "Brian is just as fast as me and Bruce is nearly as fast. Our team will still have killer wide receivers after I graduate. Don't let me stop you from signing up to play here."

"No, I'm not," nick answered. "I know about Henson's reputation. I saw one of the touchdowns MacCauley made last season when I was watching you guys on TV."

"Do you think you'd sign here if Coach Burton offers you a scholarship?" I asked.

"Offer?" Nick said chuckling. "He offered me a scholarship last June. I have had about twenty-five scholarship offers from schools since last May. I visited Virginia Tech, Maryland and Florida already." Nick lowered his voice a little. "The only reason I visited Maryland was to make my mom happy. I'm not going there. I liked VT when I visited but I don't know if my style fits what they do. Florida and your school fit my strong points best."

"We're closer to a pro style offense," I said. "If you have designs on an NFL career, Penn State might be a better choice."

"That's just the opposite of what one of the Gator quarterbacks said last weekend," Nick replied. "Fritz said the NFL game is evolving towards more mobile quarterbacks. Florida is wide open. He says it will give me a leg up being successful in the NFL." Nick caught the smile on my face when he mentioned Ed Fritz. "That's right, you know him don't you? You're both from Pennsylvania."

"Ed and I have been best friends since kindergarten," I explained. "He lives a couple doors down from me back at home. I wouldn't pay any attention to his prognostications."

"Don't worry about Florida," Nick replied. "They have a log jam at quarterback. Fritz and Walker have the spot for the next two years. They have a red shirt freshman and two true freshmen in the wings. I could wait until my fifth year in their program to be the starter." I nodded in agreement. "Of course you guys aren't a lot better. I know I'd have no chance taking the job from Brinton or Nicholson."

Nick nodded towards Jon Stafford. "I'd have to beat out Stafford as a red-shirt sophomore to start after your current guys. He'd have an extra year of experience. If I don't beat him out I have to wait until my fifth year."

"I see your dilemma," I agreed. "Of course eighteen months ago Chip Brinton never imagined himself starting now. You would probably do well if you picked the school that is the best fit for you and let your talent take it from there."

"True," Nick agreed. "You make a good point."

Nick and I continued talking football philosophy while he waited for his turn with Coach Burton. I found him to be a real student of the game. It made sense when I found out his football heritage. His dad was the long time head coach of Linganore High School, one of the high school powerhouses in Maryland football.

Nick promised me he would give Penn State a fair consideration if he found the same log jam at quarterback when he visited Miami in two weeks. I wished him the best of luck when he and his parents headed inside to meet with Coach Burton.

Ian and Troy Davis were excited when they came out to the player's lounge after their meeting with "Uncle" Bob. Both boys gave their oral commitment to attend Penn State. The twins were on track to graduate from high school early. They promised to see me in January.

Tom Kowalchuk didn't get good news from Coach Burton. He was offered a spot on next year's team as a preferred walk-on. Jay and I counseled him to be patient and to play hard this season. He could raise his stock by playing well now. Trevor and I assured him that Penn State had a long history of walk-ons who became key members of the team – Jordan Norwood, Josh Hull, Graham Zug and of course my roommate Damian.

Jacob Meyer wasn't offered a scholarship since he was only a junior. Coach Burton told the young man to play hard this fall and keep in touch. They could talk about a scholarship after the fall season was over if he kept playing the way he started out this month.

--oooOooo--

I stopped by the Mix on the way back and picked up brunch supplies and a Sunday paper. Kelly was in the shower when I returned to my apartment. Trevor and Steph headed downtown for brunch soon after I returned.

Kelly was subdued and suffering from her hangover. I made toast and coffee for her while I made eggs and sausage for myself. We settled in for an afternoon of reading the Sunday paper. I did not bring up anything about Kelly's drinking. My bringing the subject up would only bring on an argument. I hoped Steph could get through to Kelly.

Steph called me Tuesday evening to let me know she invited Kelly over for dinner Wednesday evening. She would talk with Kelly about her excessive drinking. Hopefully a woman's point of view would help the message reach my lover. Steph promised to call me when dinner was over and let me know how the talk went.

That proved unnecessary. My cell phone rang as I was walking to the Lasch Building from the Training Table that evening.

"How dare you send someone to lecture me about drinking!" Kelly shouted through the phone. "Are you too chicken shit to talk to me on your own?"

"I've tried too..." I said before she interrupted me again.

"I'M NOT SPEAKING TO YOU!" Kelly shouted before clicking her phone off.

I was pretty dejected when I arrived at the Lasch Building. I needed Kelly to see reason. Of course it took me over a year of my friends talking, lecturing and badgering me before I got the message that I can't drink so much at parties. I was going to need to be a very patient boyfriend until Kelly heard the message enough that it would sink in.

I called Steph before my receivers meeting started.

"Hey Kyle, it didn't go too w..." Steph started to say.

"I know," I said, cutting her off. "I just got chewed out by Kelly for involving you. I'm so sorry I got you I middle of this. It wasn't fair to you."

"Don't apologize, Kyle," Steph said. "I wanted to help. Kelly's my friend and she is going over the top with her drinking. Someone needed to say something to her. That's what friends do."

"Thank you for trying," I replied. "Where's Kelly at?"

"She out front of my apartment building waiting for a bus," Steph said. "Maybe you could help patch things up if you gave her a ride back to her place."

"I would if I could," I said. "I have a wide receivers meeting in two minutes."

"I guess I should have expected that," Steph said. "Trevor is meeting with Coach Atkins and the rest of defensive line now. I guess I'll see you later, Kyle."

"See you, Steph," I replied. "Thanks for trying."

--oooOooo--

Coach Adams had us reviewing the Illini secondary to make sure we all understood the opportunities we expected to see on Saturday in Champaign. The Illini defense was strong against the run but the secondary was suspect. Even Rutgers had lit them up passing before eventually fumbling away the potential winning touchdown at the end of the game. Our high powered passing offense should rack up a lot of yards and points against these guys – assuming we managed to cut down our own mistakes.

I left Kelly three messages on Thursday. She didn't return any of them. In the final one I asked her to forgive me and meet me Sunday for brunch. I would treat her to a nice meal downtown.

--oooOooo--

We flew out to Illinois Friday morning, arriving after lunch. It was a gray, dreary day with a steady drizzle. The buses hauled us to the same hotel we stayed at two years ago. I was assigned Trevor as my roommate again. That was OK. I got along as well with him as did Damian and Jay.

We had time to relax and swim at the pool before dinner. The drizzle picked up after dinner, turning into a full blown rain storm. The local weather predicted that it would continue all night and Saturday as a big storm pushed in from the northwest. The high temperature was expected to be in the low fifties, with gusting winds and as much as two inches of rainfall on Saturday.

The coaching staff huddled immediately after dinner. They called a team meeting for eight o'clock. Our planned aerial offensive for tomorrow was put on hold. Coach Burton challenged the offensive line, the running backs and the tight ends that the game would probably rest in their hands. We would try some short passing too to keep the defense honest but Coach didn't expect we'd be able to complete the medium or deep passes in tomorrow's deluge.

My friends and I gathered in Jay and Damian's room for our traditional poker game before bedtime. All of us felt confident we could beat the Illini even if the weather was bad. Coach Burton set lights out at 10:30 that evening. The Illini's 2-2 record and our #13 ranking didn't excite the TV networks. Our game would be played at 11:00 am local time.

Trevor and I left a 6:30 am wake up call for Saturday morning. I flipped on the Weather Channel while Trevor showered. The forecast hadn't changed since last night. We could expect heavy rain throughout the day with gusting winds. The current temperature was 33, just four degrees above the record low temperature for September 24th. The temp would be around 48 degrees at game time and might creep up to 55 by the end of the game. The weatherman warned of extensive flooding was expected in low lying areas.

The team had breakfast at 7:30, checked out of the hotel and headed over to Memorial Stadium. The training staff had us wear Under Armour under our uniforms to help keep us warm. The seats were filling quickly when we came outside to try to warm up. Illini fans were under orange and white umbrellas or dressed in orange slickers as they awaited the start of our contest. We loosened up and prepared for the game but never really got "warm." It was freezing in that damn rain.

Our team won the coin toss to begin the game. With the way the wind was gusting we couldn't see that defending either end zone would be an advantage. We elected to receive the kickoff. I lined up down on our five yard line and waited to receive the cold, wet rock.

The kicker boomed the ball downfield to me. The wind pushed it to my left. I continued drifting that way, trying to follow the flight of the ball as it fluttered. Thank God a gust pushed it across the sideline before it got to me. The referees gave us possession at our 40 yard line.

The conditions were just as bad as we expected. Tanner Riggs sat on the bench most of the game. Wes Kennedy, our seldom used fullback played nearly every down. Coach Burton rotated in Damian, Wyatt Smith, Charlie Taylor and ET LeBlanc to pound out yards.

Illinois' defensive line was big and physical. This was football at its most elemental. Push and knock on the other team to gouge out yards. The contest was too evenly matched in the first half to suit me. Illinois scored the first touchdown. We replied with one of our own. We took the lead when we pushed down the length of the field and allowed Andrew Perkins to try a short field goal in these impossible conditions. I don't know how but Andrew managed to split the uprights. The Illini answered right back with a long drive that ended in another touchdown for the men in orange.

I felt mostly useless on the field. I blocked the cornerback covering me. I ran a few deep routes to draw off the defensive backs so they couldn't support against the run. Chip even threw to me on one of the deep routes when I was wide open. The ball fluttered and blew away from me across the field as I, the cornerback and free safety chased after it. It fell dead on the field.

I did manage to catch three short passes, two of which kept drives going. I caught a six yarder on third and five. I also caught a ten yard pass on third down and eight. The only punt I tried to handle was blown into the end zone by the wind.

Our coaches continued sending in fresh bodies to keep up the pressure on Illinois. Our team managed to push down and score a second field goal before the half came to an end. We were down 14-13 when we went inside to dry off and warm up.

Andrew Perkins kicked a low line drive for the second half kickoff. It skittered and bounced across the field, virtually uncatchable. The ball stopped down around the Illini 10 yard line. Their returner picked it up and was swarmed over by our cover team immediately.

Our warmed up defense was brilliant on the Illini's first drive. We stopped them for two yards each on the first two plays. They tried a sweep to our left on third down and six yards to go. Trevor knifed through the blocking and caught the tailback four yards behind the line of scrimmage, making a huge splash as he dropped the tailback to the soggy ground.

I went out for my second punt return of the game and waited at the mid field line. Their punter got the ball away cleanly just as the wind gusted. The wind blew the ball back towards the Illini goal. It landed at their 40 yard line and rolled in our favor. Joe Ricci downed the ball at their 35 yard line.

Damian and our offense drove the ball forward thirty yards on six hard running plays. We stalled at the Illini 5 yard line. Andrew Perkins came in and booted the ball through in spite of a gust the almost blew the ball wide right. Score: 16-14 Penn State.

Our fired up defense stopped Illinois after eight plays on their next drive. Christian couldn't field the punt when the wind blew it out of bounds at our five yard line. Our team wasn't able to drive the ninety-five yards for a score in these miserable conditions. We managed to pick up fifty-two before we punted the ball back. Mitch Jackson pinned the Illini down at their 7 yard line.

Miraculously Illinois managed to push out from their goal line out to mid-field. Illinois ran a play action pass at us. Tyler Madden bit on the fake, rushing up for unneeded run support. Denzel Hunt slipped when as he tried to tackle the receiver ten yards downfield. No one caught him before he ran into our end zone. Score: 21-16 Illinois.

Tanner Riggs managed to field the kickoff. He made a great return, slipping and skittering through the tacklers. He was dropped at our 38 yard line. Damian banged ahead for five yards on first down.

Coach Burton called for our wildcat offense. On this play the ball was snapped to Chip instead of me. I led Chip left, appearing to block for him. As the Illini linebacker knifed in to tackle Chip, he flipped the ball outside to me. I sprinted for the corner, ducked past Jared Cantrell's block and headed for the Illini end zone. Their free safety had a shot at me but I jumped over him when he dove for the tackle. He landed in a spray of water as I danced the last five yards into the end zone. Score: 23-21 Penn State.

Our defense rose up and stopped Illinois on their next possession, not allowing them a first down. We played keep away, smashing Damian, Wes, Wyatt and Charlie at the tiring Illini defense. We drove the ball seventy-eight yards but were unable to push in for the touchdown. Andrew's kick sailed wide right. It didn't matter. We had taken ten minutes off the clock, leaving the Illini five minutes.

Our defense yielded one first down before stopping our opponents. Their punt sailed out of bounds at our 41 yard line. We were satisfied to continue pounding the ball at the now demoralized Illini. We didn't score but we did run the clock out on the game.

Everyone was relieved to get inside to dry off, warm up and get the hell out of Champaign with a win. We did the necessary interviews, grabbed our box dinners and boarded the buses for the airport.

My contributions to our victory were modest: one touchdown run for 57 yards and six receptions for 58 yards. Damian was our work horse. The final stats credited my roomie with twenty-seven carries for 165 yards. Wyatt had another 95, Charlie had 83, ET had 36 and Wes had 32 yards.

Our late afternoon flight had us back in State College at the Lasch Center by midnight. A couple hundred hearty fans welcomed us home after our close brush with defeat. Jay and I helped Damian and Trevor limp back to our apartment. The two poor, beat up guys were going to spend a lot of time in the whirlpool on Sunday. We went to bed as soon as we got to our apartment.

--oooOooo--

I woke up around 9:30 am needing to go to the bathroom. I couldn't get back to sleep when I was done. I decided to chill and catch up on e-mails.

The first e-mail was from Kelly. She apologized for not speaking to me last week and agreed to meet me for brunch. I was to call her around 11:30 to see if she was ready.

I found an e-mail from my brother Andy. He told me about Delaware's 24-17 victory over Rhodes. Andy ran back a punt 89 yards to score a touchdown yesterday. He also caught two passes for 27 yards. Andy's punt return average was good. I checked the NCAA stat site to see how much yesterday's effort moved him up the leader's list. The site reported Andy was the ranked as the top punt returner in the nation with a 26.50 yard/punt average. I scanned down the list and found my 16.25 yards/punt return average tied me for tenth.

I flipped over to check kick returns. My 48.3 yards/kick return average was second in the nation behind a freshman from Texas. I did a double take when I looked closer at the name: Michael Johanson. Tex's 50.3 yard average beat me. Andy was down at #13 with a 30.1 yard average.

I clicked over to receiving yards. Even with my sub-par effort yesterday, I had 119.5 yards/game average which placed me fifth in the nation. Andy did not make the top one hundred.

That was a great showing for the Martin brothers and for our high school. The Wolverines took four spots in the top ten in three categories with three players. No wonder our team had two state championships.

I showered then headed down to the Mix for a breakfast sandwich and a newspaper. I settled down on the couch and pulled out the sports section. Ed's Gators won a wild contest at Alabama yesterday afternoon 35-34. Ed did not get to play.

Notre Dame beat Syracuse 34-10. Jeremy had an even dozen tackles and two sacks in the game. Hal's Rutgers Scarlet Knights beat Louisville 27-20. Hal made two of three field goal attempts in the game. Drew McCormick and West Virginia beat Connecticut 17-16. Drew had eight carries for 41 yards.

There weren't any surprises among the undefeated teams at the top of the polls: Florida, USC, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Michigan – The usual suspects. Georgia Tech was still undefeated too. They beat Maryland 38-23 yesterday in College Park.

Boise State was undefeated. They won a lot of games out in the WAC but still didn't get much respect. Their 1-5 record in bowl games over the last six years didn't help at all. Four one loss teams separated them from the undefeated big teams in the polls. They were ranked #12, one step up from us.

I sent off e-mails congratulating all my friends except for Jake Kring. Poor Jake was going to get a lot of condolence e-mails as his Orangemen played out their season. Jake was going to have his hands full if he won the starting QB job next season.

Trevor hobbled out of his room around eleven o'clock. The poor guy looked like he was an old man the way he limped and groaned as he moved. Damian wasn't in much better shape. I had a few aches from yesterday but wasn't too bad. Jay was stuck on the bench all day so he was in perfect health. Damian and Trevor had been two of the grunts who pounded out our win against tough opponents. Both of my friends took long hot showers to loosen up. They planned to spend most of the afternoon in the training room in the whirlpool trying to work out the aches.

I gave Kelly a call at 11:30 the way she asked. She was subdued when she answered.

"Can you forgive me forgive me for being such a pain in the ass last week, Kyle?" Kelly asked meekly.

"You weren't, sweetie," I replied. "I just worry about you and want the best for you."

"I know," Kelly agreed. "I wish I had taken your advice last night. I went out with Cindy, Jen and Mark. I had way too much to drink."

"I'm sorry, dear," I said consolingly. "Do you still want to go out for brunch?"

"I don't think so," Kelly answered. "I'd rather have something at your place and then cuddle. We don't get enough time together."

"No we don't," I agreed. "How about soup and crackers?"

"That sounds good, Kyle," Kelly agreed.

"I'll be over to pick you up in a few minutes, honey," I said before I clicked off my phone.

Kelly and I stopped off at the Mix before returning to my apartment. I grabbed a sandwich and chips for myself and soup and crackers for my lover. I also picked up a half gallon of orange juice. I figured it would be good for Kelly and I knew it would be good for me. We enjoyed a relaxed lunch before we cuddled on the couch and spent half the afternoon reading the newspaper.

The second pair of aspirin and the light lunch helped my lover's hangover and attitude. By three o'clock she was feeling pretty good and more than a little frisky. The two of us took advantage of one of the few good points about our fights. The make-up sex that afternoon was amazing. The two of us were totally relaxed and felt closer than ever by dinner time.

Kelly and I watched the start of the Fox late afternoon football game. The Giants were out in Green Bay playing Zack's Packers. Eli Manning and the New York offense took Green Bay apart. Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck manhandled the Green Bay's o-line and beat the snot out of Zack. Mercifully we turned the slaughter off at five. I drove Kelly back to her apartment before I came back for my team dinner at the Training Table.

Most of our team caught the end of the Packers/Giants game in the player's lounge just before our team meeting. Zack's team lost 34-10. My mentor was having a brutal introduction to the NFL.

Coach Burton praised our team's flexibility in changing our game plan on short notice and praised our toughness for beating Illinois on the road in terrible conditions. Damian, Wes Kennedy, Greg Nowicki and Jibril Sloan drew special praise for their contributions towards victory – Damian for his hard running and Wes, Greg and Jibril for superb run blocking to get Damian and the other tailbacks room to run.

Coach reviewed our next opponent, Purdue. The Boilermakers had a perfect 4-0 record so far. They hadn't faced us, Ohio State, Michigan or Michigan State yet. They were not favored to beat any of those four teams. Their quarterback was a pocket passer with an excellent rating of 133.5. He had thrown eight touchdowns and five picks so far this year. The Boilermakers had a decent running game, averaging 4.6 yards a carry. Their play calling was evenly balanced between run and pass.

Purdue's defense was suspect. Little Eastern Michigan had thrown for five touchdowns in their loss to Purdue. The defensive line was strong against the run and got good pressure against the QB. The linebackers and secondary were not as good. Hopefully we could exploit that weakness this week. The long range forecast did not predict monsoons on Saturday.

--oooOooo--

Practices were excellent during the week. Everyone, especially Chip, Damian and the offensive line drew confidence from performing so well under adverse conditions the previous Saturday. Dominating Illinois' big offensive line was a major accomplishment. Our three penalties, no interceptions and one fumble were improvements over our past performances too.

Tyler Madden, Salim Rogers, Jibril Sloan, Memed Marsic and Glenn Korbel took Trevor downtown to the Rathskeller Tuesday night after our football meetings to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. He wasn't too drunk when they brought him home at midnight. Now it was legal for us to have booze in our apartment. If anyone asked, the booze belonged to Trevor, at least until Damian's birthday in November.

Will and Abby were coming up to State College for the game on Saturday. Mom and Dad were attending Andy's game down in Newark while Liz and Josh babysat for the day. I planned to offer to pay for dinner for my brother and sister-in-law but Will beat me to the punch. Kelly and I would be his guests for the evening.

Kelly and I spent more time than usual studying together that week. We had a term paper due in history. I did mine on the fighting on Culp's Hill on the evening of July 2nd and into the morning of July 3rd. Kelly did hers on the collapse of the XI Corps north of Gettysburg on July 1st. We helped each other with the final drafts and the proof reading.

I received one of my periodic e-mails from Matt Sauder. Matt kept me updated on my Wolverines. My high school team was 3-0 and had blown out all three opponents. They were matched up against Central on Friday night. Central was also 3-0. The two teams were far and away the class of the Lancaster-Lebanon League's AAA.

Over dinner on Tuesday night Christian Hunsecker asked, "Are you interested in another bet on the Central/Wolverines game this Friday? Loser does the other guy's laundry for a week."

"You bet!" I replied enthusiastically. Christian was taken aback by my enthusiasm momentarily. He shook it off.

"It's a bet then," he said, extending his hand to shake on the deal.

I figured this was a nearly sure thing that my team would beat Christian's team this year. Central lost their experienced starting quarterback to graduation last spring. They had an excellent sophomore playing for them but he didn't have Matt's savvy yet. The Wolverines would take them apart when they met.

Kelly and I got together Friday for an early lunch at my apartment. We wouldn't have more time together until after Saturday's game. It was a nice interlude for the two of us. Kelly headed for her Statistics class after lunch. We meet again for a few minutes after history. She gave me a kiss and wished me luck for the game tomorrow.

--oooOooo--

We had our normal pre-game meetings after dinner Friday night. Buses hauled us over to Toftrees when they were done. My friends and I gathered in Jay and Damian's room for our weekly poker game.

I headed back to my room a few minutes before our curfew. I wanted to check on-line to see the results of the Central/Wolverines game earlier in the evening. I was delighted by the news I found at LancasterOnline. My Wolverines had beaten Central 34-27. It must have been an exciting game to watch. The lead changed multiple times. Matt led the Wolverines on a game winning drive two and a half minutes before the end of the game to break the 27-27 tie.

I popped over to Christian and G. J.'s room to gloat before bed time. I told Christian I would deliver my laundry to him after lunch on Sunday. Christian grumbled that this was the last time he was betting with me on this stupid game.

Coach Burton had us up early on Saturday morning, at seven AM. Our game started at noon. After breakfast he headed over to the Lasch Building to prepare. We lucked out with the weather. It was a beautiful early fall day. Game time temperature was expected to be in the low seventies.

The stadium was buzzing with excitement when we came out for warm-ups. My teammates and I were psyched up. We carried a new confidence that we could dominate our opponent if we needed that. No offensive line was bigger than the behemoths on the Illinois line.

Our confidence during warm-ups turned out not to be misplaced. Purdue's mistakes didn't help their cause either. They won the coin toss and took the opening kickoff. The returner caught the ball just inside the goal line and ran it out. Tony King stopped him at our 25 yard line and stood him up. Joe Ricci popped the ball loose before he went down and Matt Frye alertly jumped on the fumble. Penn State's ball at Purdue's 19 yard line.