Chapter 3

I woke up on Sunday morning with a pounding headache. I shouldn't have had so many beers last night. It was a few minutes before 11 am. Christian was gone, presumably on his way to church at the chapel by now. I took a couple of aspirin, drank a lot of water and went for a long hot shower. All of it helped a little. I still felt bad, but not as bad as when I got up.

My mood wasn't helped by the fact that I forgot to e-mail Penny yesterday. I had promised her I would never go to bed without sending her an e-mail. I didn't want to fall into the trap of ignoring her while we were separated. I sent her an e-mail abjectly apologizing for forgetting her yesterday.

I started my homework for tomorrow's classes. Football had consumed all my time Friday afternoon and evening and all day Saturday. I had a lot of work to do. I expected Christian and Bev to stop by on the way to lunch. At a quarter to one I decided they probably had ditched me and gone straight to lunch. I headed over to Pollock Commons for lunch.

I grabbed a couple Danish and a couple glasses of orange juice. I scanned the room and didn't see any of my friends. I found a partly empty table and had a seat at one end. I hadn't eaten for more than a couple minutes when I was joined by a bleary eyed Jay Nicholson. Jay looked as bad as I felt – with one difference: he had a huge grin on his face.

"I owe you man," Jay gushed as he sat down beside me. "I owe you big time!"

"How's that?"

"Your advice last night. Brittany loved it! I wish someone had told me about licking cunt before. What a night!"

"I'm happy for you. Is Brittany the girl that left the party with you?" I asked.

"Brittany Ford. She's a sophomore nursing student. She's amazing in bed. Usually I spend a little time with the girl talking after we fuck and then split. Brittany came twice before I even got to stick my cock in her. She was insatiable. I thought I should leave after the first time. She demanded I stay and do her again. We fucked three times last night. I've never had a girl so hot for my dick. It was amazing. I ended up spending the night in bed with her in her dorm room. Thank God her roommate went home this weekend."

"I'm glad you had a fun night," I said.

"And a fun morning. Brittany woke me up with a blow job," Jay explained. "We fucked again just before I came over here."

"It's nice everything worked out so well for you," I said. My cock stirred at the thought of Jay screwing a girl an hour ago. I remembered that I hadn't planted my cock in Penny's hot, wet love hole for twenty-nine days and thirteen hours.

Our conversation turned back to football. We spent the rest of lunch analyzing the yesterday's game. Jay had a mind for football similar to mine. He was interested in why we did the plays we did, how the blocking, pass routes and running all fit together. How did things work? Jay and I were going to be good together in two years when Zack Hayes graduated from college.

Christian and Bev were studying at our desks when I came back. I gathered up my dirty clothes from the floor where I dropped them in the dark last night and put them in my laundry bag in my closet. Christian gave me a disapproving look. I ignored it. I grabbed my EDPSY book and read my assignment on my bed. Christian and Bev spent half the afternoon working on homework together.

I worked on my Math when they headed over to the library. I didn't finish my work for Monday until after dinner. I went over to the Lasch Building when I was done with my homework. I did my daily workout. I noticed people in the film room when I was ready to leave. The group included Zack and Aaron. I went inside and joined them. They were analyzing the film from yesterday's game. I spent most of the evening with them. It was informative listening to my friends go over the game. Zack was much better at analyzing games than four years ago when he taught my friends and me how to review game tapes in high school.

I received an e-mail from Penny that told me I shouldn't worry about missing an e-mail on a game day. She knew how busy I was.

I received an e-mail from my brother too. He sent me an mpeg clip from the Big Ten Network's broadcast of our game. It was cool watching myself on the return. The play had gone pretty much the way Coach Ferguson had planned.

Monday morning I grabbed a copy of the Daily Collegian on the way into Sparks Building for Math 110. I found a seat and checked out the paper. None of the headlines interested me so I turned to the sports section. The headlines in that section read "Lions Bash Kent State." Right under it the subhead said "Speedy Freshman Sets the Tone." I grinned. I started reading the account of our game last Saturday. I flipped the paper over when I reached the crease.

Surprise! There was a picture of Zack Hayes side by side with my picture. The article on Zack said "Hayes Shines in His First Start." It took a quarter of the page. The article about me was two columns wide. The headline said "Big Things Expected From Kyle Martin."

The article about me recounted my high school career, knee injury and arrival here at Penn State. It noted that I was one of the fastest players on the team. It said I held the state 100 meter dash record for high school. It included a quote from Coach Burton praising my work returning kicks and punts on Saturday. The article was a real ego boost.

I read Zack's article next. It was an excellent description of my friend and the work he had done to get ready to lead the Nittany Lions. Zack had been a fan favorite last year. The writer expected big things from Zack too.

I noticed a guy sitting beside me look at me and then do a double take as I finished the article about Zack. He saw me look at him. He asked, "Are you ... him?" He pointed at my picture in the paper.

"Yep, that's me," I acknowledged.

"I was at the game. You were great on that kick return. My buddies and I were going ape shit when you scored. We loved it."

"Thanks. My blockers really set me up. I owe them the touchdown. They made it possible."

"It's really cool to meet you. I never expected to see someone like you here in class."

"It's no big deal," I said. "I have to take math courses to graduate like everybody else."

"Keep up the good work. I'll be cheering for at the next game."

"Thanks. It was nice to talk to you." I went back to reading the paper until Dr. Gowavaram came in and started class.

Melissa Addington found me when class was over. She gushed about my touchdown too. She wasn't the last person to do that to me that day. One or two people in every class recognized me.

I arrived early at EDPSY after lunch. I found Chelsea Wright near the door before class. We sat together. I had enjoyed her company at the party on Saturday night but I had an ulterior motive. I needed someone in class to take notes for me in Friday's class and get the assignment to me. We played Boston College in Boston on Saturday. The team would leave on Friday morning. I knew Dr. Henderson wouldn't help me keep up with class. I needed my own arrangements. Chelsea and I talked for a few minutes before class.

Dr. Henderson started the day's lecture. Part way through the period he asked the class a question from the previous day's reading. "What are the main components of learning? Anyone? Anyone know the answer?" He looked across the room at the silent students. "Has no one read the assigned reading?" Dr. Henderson taunted. He scanned the room again. His eyes locked on me. "Mr. Martin, were you too busy playing football to read Chapter 1?"

"No sir. I read the assignment. The components are: Knowledge of subject and teaching resources; Critical thinking and problem-solving skills; Knowledge of students and their learning and Teaching and communication skills"

Dr. Henderson acknowledged, "Correct Mr. Martin." His face did not show any pleasure at my answer. He proceeded on with his lecture.

Chelsea asked me a question after class. "Does Dr. Henderson have a problem with you? He seemed mad when you knew the answer to his question. I couldn't have answered it."

"Dr. Henderson doesn't like football players. He doesn't think I'm serious about becoming a teacher."

"That's not fair," Chelsea protested.

"I know. I just have to deal with it," I explained. I walked with Chelsea as she headed back to her dorm room in East Halls. We stopped in for some ice cream at the Creamery. I was glad I met Chelsea at the party. I hoped to become friends with her.

The guys at practice teased both Zack and me about the articles in the Collegian. It bothered me a little at first. Zack told me this, "Don't take the guy's comments personally. The Collegian does a couple players' profiles in Monday's paper. They always rag on the guys that were profiled."

"They're not mad at me?" I asked. "I just want to fit in here."

"You keep working hard, studying and staying humble," Zack said. "You'll fit in just fine."

After dinner we had film study of our game on Saturday. Coach Ferguson was pleased with the first kick return. He said, "King and Thompson. Excellent blocks. Martin. I liked the way you followed your blockers. You hit the hole fast. You did excellent work in the open field."

Coach Ferguson had a couple improvements he wanted to see me make in the next game. Tomorrow's practice would focus on Boston College. The coaches expected this game to be more difficult. Boston College wasn't ranked in the Top 25, though they received a few votes in the polls.

We worked hard in the afternoons and evenings to prepare ourselves for the game. I barely had time to squeeze in my homework for my classes. I was going to be worn out by the time the season was over.

My brother Andy e-mailed me with news on Tuesday night. Angela Butler gave birth to a 7 lb. 2 oz. daughter the day before. Mother and daughter were doing fine. Angela was one of the pregnant teens that joined our impromptu support group last winter. My friends and I originally did it to help Andy's ex-girlfriend Crystal through her pregnancy. Angela and later Natalie Van Dyke had joined us when they found out they were pregnant too. Natalie was due in a few weeks.

Angela's parents and their attorney filed a paternity suit against Shane Sensenig and his parents. Shane denied any responsibility for getting Angela pregnant. Now that Joelynn was born, the truth would come out. The Butlers weren't going to have any sympathy for the Sensenigs if Shane was the father. They were demanding half the costs of the pregnancy and birth along with a large child support payment each month. I hoped they would get it. Shane was a weasel for the way he used Angela and then dumped her when he was done with her. It had been hard for Andy to shoulder responsibility for getting Crystal pregnant. He passed the test of his character with flying colors.

Penny sent me an e-mail to let me know she probably would miss a day or two with e-mails. Her parents were taking her to Penn tomorrow morning. She wasn't sure how quickly she would be on-line again after she got to school. I sent an e-mail back wishing her good luck.

Classes went well during the week. There never seemed to be enough time to do everything. Math 110 was easy so far. It was all review of work I had done during high school. History 1 was easy too. We wrote for nearly every class in English Comp. I had lots of reading for Poly Sci 1 and EDPSY 14.

On Wednesday Chelsea Wright agreed to e-mail the homework assignment for EDPSY 14 to me after class on Friday. I hoped my hotel room in Boston would have an internet connection so I could work on my homework on the flight home to Pennsylvania after the game on Saturday. Kelly O'Keefe was going to do the same thing for me with History 1. I talked with Mr. Moore, my Poly Sci instructor, on Thursday after class. He gave me the assignment his grad student was to hand out the next day.

I received an e-mail from Penny that evening. Her roommate was delayed. She had arrived a few minutes before Penny went to dinner. Her name was Nicole Patterson.

I had enough time on Friday morning for Math 110 before I met the team to go to the airport. Melissa gave me a kiss on the cheek and wished me luck tomorrow. She's a great girl. If only I didn't have a girlfriend already.

I hurried back to my room and changed into a button down Oxford shirt, slacks, sport coat and tie. Coach Burton insisted everyone had to look sharp when we traveled. I grabbed my overnight bag and headed for the buses at the Lasch Building. I grabbed the first seat available on the second bus. I sat with Cooper Barnes, our kicker.

The ride to the University Park Airport was short, only a few miles. The whole team – 108 players, coaches, trainers, equipment people, video people, PR people and athletic department people trooped through the terminal to our private gate to board our charter. We were flying to Boston on a Boeing 737.

That was a relief. I was afraid we'd end up in a small plane and I would be stuck in a middle seat between a couple guys like Antwaan Booker and Jacob Washington. Antwaan goes a good 320 pounds. Jacob is a svelte 275 pounds (for a defensive lineman). I couldn't imagine being stuffed between them on a regular commercial flight.

I found a seat on the plane with Christian. I settled in and pulled out my Math book. I wanted to get as much homework down as possible on the flight. We waited about fifteen minutes on the ground before the plane was ready to go.

As soon as the plane reached cruising altitude the stewardesses brought box lunches and drinks around to everyone. It wasn't airline food. The lunches were prepared by the staff at the Training Table. They were delicious.

I leaned over to Christian when we finished eating, "This sure beats taking the school bus to away games doesn't it?"

"You better believe it," Christian chuckled. "I think I could get used to this."

We went back to studying when the stewardesses cleared our trays. The flight to Boston took around two hours. Our plane landed at Logan Airport. Three coach buses met us and took us to our hotel, the Sheraton Needham. Coach Burton assigned us roommates. He put Christian with me, which was fine. I was used to him.

The hotel fed us dinner in one of their banquet rooms. We had team and position meetings after dinner. Coach Burton set a curfew of 11 pm for us.

The team had a breakfast buffet on Saturday morning in the hotel's banquet hall before we rode the buses over to Boston College's Alumni Stadium. We had a walk through practice on the field at 10 am. The team waited and prepared in the visitor's locker room until lunchtime.

Aaron Morano stopped by my locker while I was suiting up for the game. Aaron clapped me on the back. "Are you alright today, Kyle?"

I gave my friend a smile. "I'm OK."

"You'll keep lunch down today?" Aaron asked.

"Yes. I'm looking forward to today's game. Boston College allowed a lot of return yards last week. I think I can help the team today."

"Go get'em, Kyle," Aaron answered. He headed out to the field for warm-ups. I did feel more confident this week. We went through our routine to prepare ourselves for the game. The stands were gradually filling with BC fans as we prepared. I looked across the field at the Eagles players who came out as we finished our warm up.

Greg Harrison popped into my mind as I looked across the field at the players in maroon and gold. He should be over there now, getting ready to play against Zack and me. I stared at them too long.

Zack tapped me on the shoulder. "Thinking of Greg?"

"Yeah," I answered.

"He's here you know," Zack tapped his right fist on his chest over his heart. "Greg is always here with us. Never forget."

"Yep," I confirmed.

"Kyle – remember Greg would kick your butt if you didn't concentrate on your job today. You know how he was about slackers."

"I'll play hard, Zack."

We headed back inside for Coach Burton's pep talk and to wait for the pre-game introductions. We waited in the visitor's tunnel while the Boston College Eagles were introduced. We ran into the stadium with polite applause when it was our turn.

Alumni Stadium was much smaller than Beaver Stadium. I was told it had a seating capacity of 44,500. This place couldn't be as noisy as Beaver Stadium last week.

Boston College won the coin toss. They had a pretty decent offense. They managed a couple first downs before they had to punt the ball from their 48 yard line. I lined up on our 10 yard line with explicit directions from Coach Ferguson not to touch the ball if it went inside the 10. BC's punter boomed the ball. I started to back up a couple steps before I realized that I shouldn't touch the ball. I cleared out of the way and watched helplessly as BC downed the ball on our 2 yard line.

Boston College had a strong defense just like us. The first half degenerated into a battle for field position. BC always seemed to have good field position but had trouble capitalizing on it. We always seemed to be backed up against our own goal line. I never got punts that I could return. BC held a 7-3 advantage as the first half wound down.

Four and half minutes remained when I took a punt from BC. They were punting from midfield. I was on our 10 yard line again. Their punter didn't get off a good kick. I watched the flight of the ball, took a couple steps forward and drifted a little right to catch the ball. I finally had something to return!

I settled under the ball and caught it between outstretched arms and my chest. I glanced downfield quickly while I put the ball under my right arm to secure it. I looked to the right first, spotting Tyler Madden flattening the gunner on his side. I looked further downfield and saw my blockers engaging their guys.

I sprinted downfield towards the right sideline. BC's players shifted to the right side of the field to tackle me. My blockers cleared the first 10-12 yards for me before I ran into any Eagles players. I cut back to the left between the blocks of Trevor Conwell and Wes Kennedy. The BC players had pursued too far to the right. I juked and faked out the next tackler. The punter finally caught me near their 40 yard line. I was tackled from behind by one of BC's defensive backs while I tried to stiff arm the punter to get by him.

Our offense could use all our weapons now that we had the ball in good field position. Zack and the offense needed six plays to punch the ball in to take the lead in the game 10-7.

We kicked the ball back to Boston College with 2 minutes left in the half. Antwaan Booker and Jacob Washington and their defensive line mates kept the pressure on BC's quarterback while he tried to run their two minute offense. Two incomplete passes and a six yard pass on 3rd and 10 ended their drive. They punted the ball back to me. BC covered better this time but I still managed a fifteen yard gain to put the ball on our 41 yard line.

Zack had a 1 minute 11 seconds left and all three time outs. Zack completed a couple quick out passes to pick up a dozen yards and a first down. Coach Adams sent me in for the next play. It was one of the three new plays I had practiced with the first team this week.

I lined up in the slot between Bo and Evan. I streaked downfield seven yards and cut left on a crossing route, trailed by BC's nickel back. Bo and Evan ran deep routes, pulling the free safety, left cornerback and strong safety deep with them. Zack Hayes led me perfectly when he rifled the ball to me.

I nestled the ball into my chest and sprinted downfield. Derek Whitaker blocked the cornerback covering him out of my way as I ran for the far sideline. None of the BC defenders caught me. I carried the ball into the end zone for touchdown to silence the crowd in Alumni Stadium. I tossed the ball to an official just before my teammates mobbed me in the end zone.

Zack banged helmets with me and declared, "That's why I wanted you to play here Kyle. Hell of a job." My other teammates slapped me on the back and hugged me as we celebrated our score.

The coaches hustled us off the field so the PAT team could kick. Coop made the PAT to bring the score to 17-7 Penn State. We kicked the ball off to BC with 41 seconds left in the half. Our defense didn't allow them to get any points before half time.

I managed another good kick return to start the second half. I gave the ball to Zack and the offense at our 46 yard line. Coach Burton kept the Eagles off balance with his mix of plays. Four runs and three passes moved our offense down to BC's 28 yard line. Coach Adams sent me in for another of my plays. BC made sure to cover me with two defensive backs. Bo Cherry took advantage of his single coverage to get free. Zack fired the ball to him at the five yard line. Bo spun and broke a tackle to carry the ball in for another touchdown. The successful PAT put us up 24-7 over BC.

Our defense turned up the heat on BC's quarterback with this lead. Antwaan picked up two sacks, Jacob Washington, Karol Ziska and Pete Klein all added one each. Our offense concentrated on running the ball to chew up the time remaining on the clock. BC managed a long field goal in the third period. The score was 24-10 half way through the fourth quarter.

BC finally got their offense going when our defense switched to a prevent defense. They narrowed the score to 24-17. Our offense concentrated on ball possession in the next series. Shawn O'Conner, Jabari Walker and fellow freshman Wyatt Smith pounded the ball down the field. We kicked a field goal when we ran out of room and couldn't score near BC's end zone. Coop's field goal brought the final score to 27-17 Penn State.

I got to talk to BC's starting tight end, Alex Bianchi, at the end of the game. He had played wide receiver when he started at BC two years ago. He was switched over to tight end after his first season. He spent the last year bulking up to get big enough to play the position. I didn't tell him I knew why he was playing tight end. He was replacing Greg Harrison, my high school teammate and BC recruit who was killed by a drunk driver a year and a half ago.

I ended up with 132 yards on four kick returns, 63 yards on four punt returns, and a 48 yard touchdown reception. I felt like I earned my place on the team that day.

Our team showered, changed and boarded our buses for Logan Airport and home. Christian and I sat beside Zack and Aaron on the first bus. Zack got a call on his cell phone as we were riding to the airport. I only caught half the conversation.

When he answered the phone Zack said, "Hello?"

"Hey, Sam. Good to hear from you. We beat BC 24-17 today." It was Sam, Zack's older brother.

"17 for 23, 223 yards and two touchdowns. Will's brother caught one of them." I smiled as Zack referred to me.

"How'd your day go?"

"Oh ... I'm sorry to hear that." Aaron and I both listened when we heard that.

"Somebody will take you, Sam," Zack reassured. "You can bet on it."

"Love you bro. Call me tomorrow and let me know what's up."

"Bye," Zack clicked the phone off and put it back in his pocket.

Aaron and I asked simultaneously, "What happened to Sam?"

Zack related the bad but not unexpected news. The Philadelphia Eagles had cut Sam that morning. They had to cut down to 53 players and Sam didn't make the roster. It wasn't unexpected. The Eagles had drafted a quarterback last spring. Zack predicted that Green Bay, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Denver or San Francisco would pick Sam up. They all played the West Coast Offense. The NFL didn't have that many QBs experienced in the West Coast Offense. Sam would find another spot.

We boarded our charter plane at Logan Airport. Once we were in the air the stewardesses brought dinner around to everyone. The athletic department support staff had picked up "grinders" for dinner for us. This led to a debate among many of the team members. The guys from Pittsburgh and west called our sandwiches grinders. The guys from around Philadelphia called them hoagies. Most of us called them subs. Tyler Madden insisted, "The deli near my home in Norristown calls them Zepps or Zeppelins." The sandwiches were delicious regardless of their name.

We got back to the University Park Airport around 10:00 pm. The buses delivered us back to the Lasch Building. I was surprised to see a few hundred students waiting for us when we got off the buses. They cheered and applauded as we exited the buses. That was really cool.

I sent off a long e-mail to Penny on Sunday to let her know about the game and my trip to Boston. She replied later that day. She was settling in at Penn. She was going out to dinner with Will and Abby that evening. Penny was still getting to know her roommate Nicole.

I ran into Zack when I was doing my workout at the Lasch Building on Sunday afternoon. Zack filled me in on his brother's situation. Mike Holmgren, head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, grabbed Sam as soon as he became available. Sam was flying out to Seattle as we spoke. Things were up in the air about Sam's fiancée, Trisha Wright. For now she was going to continue working at her job in Philadelphia.

We didn't have classes on Monday thanks to the Labor Day holiday. I wanted to sleep in on Monday but Christian woke me up when he got up at 7 am. I shut the curtains in the room when he went to breakfast with Bev. I managed to snatch a couple more hours of sleep when he left.

I went over to the Lasch Building after lunch to study video of our next opponent: Youngstown State. YSU was our next sacrificial victim before we started playing serious games. They lost to Appalachian State and beat South Dakota State so far this season. I spent an hour studying them.

We weren't supposed to, but I took a look at the video we had on Notre Dame. We played them in two weeks. Notre Dame was ranked #5 in the nation at the moment. One of my best friends was a freshman linebacker for the Fighting Irish. I spotted Jeremy as I watched the special team plays. Jeremy was a wedge buster.

Christian and Bev invited a group of our friends to go downtown for pizza for dinner. Cindy, Kelly, and Jen joined Jay, Damian, G. J. and me.

I found an e-mail from my brother Andy when I got back to my room. Andy's mood was sky high that night. My family had returned home from our annual Labor Day Weekend trip to Cape Henlopen. Andy had hooked up with his beach fling girlfriend Lauren Watson from last year. He had more sex over the weekend than he had in the previous ten months – since he found out his ex-girlfriend was pregnant with Connor and Noah. He assured me that he used condoms. Two kids were enough for him.

Our sister Liz had hooked up with Lauren's younger brother Josh like last year. Liz wouldn't confirm it, but Josh bragged to some of the other guys that weekend that Liz let him have sex with her. I wasn't surprised. I knew how often Liz and her ex-boyfriend Cody Stevens had slept together before they broke up. Liz undoubtedly saw Josh as a no-strings-attached opportunity to relieve her pent up sexual needs.

Andy congratulated me on my play against Boston College. He had caught a summary of the game on the radio Saturday evening before he went to bed. Rob Lang sent his congratulations too.

Chelsea Wright e-mailed me with my EDPSY assignment for Wednesday's class along with a copy of her notes from last Friday. I needed to figure out something nice to do for Chelsea. Her help was going to be invaluable to keep me out of Dr. Henderson's doghouse.

Practice went well during the week. Coach Adams gave me three new plays to learn and practice with the first string that week. Coach Ferguson warned me that Christian and Tanner were each going to get a couple returns against Youngstown State. They needed to get game experience in case anything happened to me this year.

Dr. Henderson tried to ambush me in class on Wednesday. He asked a question directly to me. The material was covered during Friday's class but wasn't covered in our text book. Dr. Henderson was flabbergasted when I answered his question correctly. He stammered and sputtered a little and then acknowledged that my answer was correct. I wished that would end things between us but I doubted it.

Coach Burton called Zack Hayes, Trevor Conwell and me into his office on Thursday after practice. "I believe you gentlemen are friends with Winfield Brinton?" Trevor and I readily acknowledged that Chip was our friend.

Zack seemed confused. "Winfield who?"

Trevor explained. "Chip ... Chip Brinton."

"Ooohhh ... Chip. I know him, Coach."

"Good. We have Brinton at the top of our recruiting list for quarterback. He's coming to visit in a few weeks. Do any of you have contact with him regularly?" Coach Burton asked. Trevor and Zack indicated they didn't.

"Chip and I keep in touch," I explained. "We've traded e-mails a couple times since football camp started. Is that OK?"

"Did you talk to him about attending Penn State?"

"Not since I got here. We did talk about it in July. Is that a problem?"

Coach Burton explained, "No, you're OK if you talked about it in July. You weren't a team member yet." Coach Burton looked at each of us. "I'd like the three of you to serve as his guides during his official visit."

Chapter 4 »