Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 25
Wednesday, Coach Moreno was back and would train me through the weekend and into early the following week. I was actually really excited. Working off his playbook with Coach Holloway was good, but even as gruff as Coach Moreno was to work with, I learned something almost every time he spoke. Honestly, I kind of treasured the time I got to work with him.
He was standing off to the side, by the bleachers, a few steps behind Coach Holloway and Kenneth, when we finished up seven-on-seven practice.
That was a little confusing because normally, he’d be on an open section of the field setting up whatever he was going to use to train me on that day. Today, instead, he just watched us practice.
I would have thought he’d be evaluating how I was doing, but considering what he’s said about seven-on-seven before, that didn’t seem likely.
Still, I thought I had done a good job implementing what he’d taught me.
“Did you see that last pass?” I asked, running over to him after we finished up. “I used that hip rotation technique you showed me last time.”
“Show me when it’s difficult, not when you have all the time in the world to make your throw without anyone coming at you! Otherwise, it’s just playground bullshit.”
I had four seconds, not all the time in the world. Yeah, I didn’t have to dodge anyone, but I also took more time than that in an actual game.
Not that I was going to point any of that out. I just shrugged in response.
“Follow me.”
He turned and headed toward the field house without another word. I grabbed my stuff and hurried to catch up, wondering what I’d done wrong. He couldn’t still be pissed I was doing seven on seven. I’d gotten permission.
Moreno led me through the main doors of the field house, past the equipment room and Coach Holloway’s office, down to a side room used for holding the audio-visual equipment. Normally, when we watched film or something, Coach Holloway would pull equipment out of here.
Today, there were two chairs in the cramped little room facing a TV on a cart with a VCR below it. Next to the VCR was a stack of VHS tapes with team names and dates. Moreno pointed to a chair.
“Sit.”
I took the seat, setting my water bottle on the floor beside me. I don’t know why, but it felt like I’d been called into the principal’s office.
“Football success depends as much on what happens between your ears as what happens with your arm. Every team in this conference has talented athletes who are in good condition. Hell, most of them have quarterbacks who can throw the ball just fine,” he said, grabbing the tape on top and sliding it into the machine. “Understanding your opponents through film study is what separates good quarterbacks from great ones. Physical talent gets you noticed. Mental preparation gets you scholarships.”
The TV sprang to life, showing our JV team facing off against Trinity. Moreno hit fast-forward, the players moving like cartoon characters as he searched for something specific.
“We’re starting with defensive schemes from games you’ve already played. I want you to learn how to see what defenses are really doing, not just what they want you to think they’re doing.”
He stopped the tape and rewound a few seconds, then hit play. The opposing defense lined up in what looked like basic Cover 2.
“What do you see?”
“Cover 2? Two safeties deep, corners playing underneath.”
“Look at the cornerbacks. How are they positioned?”
I leaned forward, focusing on the players in question. “They’re ... turned in? Facing me instead of their receivers.”
“Good. What does that tell you?”
“They’re not worried about getting beat deep because they have safety help.”
Moreno paused the tape again. “Right. Now watch this.”
He hit play. The cornerbacks immediately jumped the short routes while the safeties rotated to cover the deep middle and sideline.
“See how the safety on the weak side cheated down? They’re showing you Cover 2 but they’re really in Cover 3. The cornerback knew he had help underneath, not just over the top.”
“So if I’d thrown the quick slant...”
“Interception.”
Moreno fast-forwarded through more plays, stopping occasionally to point out subtle defensive tells. A linebacker telegraphing a blitz, a safety’s tell showing where the coverage was rotating, how cornerbacks could hide their movement until the last moment.
“The Defense lies,” he said during one pause. “It’s their job. They show you one thing before the snap and do something completely different after it. Your job is to see through the deception.”
He quizzed me on formation after formation, correcting my observations and teaching me to focus on details I’d never noticed before. Little things that could tell me which side they were going to cheat on, whether it was a man or zone coverage, and so on.
After about twenty minutes, he ejected the tape and loaded a different one. The label read “Lamar High 1994” in block letters.
Moreno went through the same process of identifying formations and teaching me to spot their tendencies.
After watching a series of plays, he asked, “What do you see that connects all of these plays?”
I tried to run through all of the plays in my head again, but nothing jumped out at me.
“I ... uhh, I don’t know.”
“Lamar has a habit of bringing strong-side pressure on third downs,” he explained, pausing on a third-and-seven situation. “Watch their middle linebacker.”
I studied the player in question as Moreno let the play unfold in slow motion. The linebacker started in the middle of the formation but gradually cheated toward the strong side, leaving the weak side undermanned.
“See that? He’s trying to help with their blitz package, but he’s creating a hole in their coverage.”
“So I should audible to a run to the weak side?”
“Depends on the down and distance. Third and long, you might want a quick slant to the flat where that linebacker should be. First and ten, yeah, hand it off to the weak side and watch your running back pick up eight yards.”
I pulled a small notebook out of my backpack and jotted down notes about Lamar’s tendencies. Moreno watched me write with what might have been approval.
“The key is recognizing these tendencies during games, which requires hours of film study beforehand. This linebacker makes this mistake at least once per quarter. If you know what it looks like, you’ll be ready when it happens, but you won’t see it if you haven’t done your homework.”
He fast-forwarded through more Lamar footage, showing me how their secondary communicated and where they were vulnerable to different route combinations. The more I watched, the more patterns emerged. It was really interesting. Coach Holloway had gone over watching tape with me, but not like this.
Coach Moreno was also making a puzzle out of it. A mental game and not just a checklist like Coach Holloway had done.
After we’d covered Lamar’s basic defensive schemes, Moreno ejected that tape and loaded another one labeled “Monterey High 1994.”
The footage started and I watched myself take the snap and scramble right, looking for an open receiver.
“This is your touchdown pass,” Moreno said as the play developed on screen.
I saw myself step up in the pocket, looking for a receiver. The defense was all over Mickey, who cut hard, taking them with him and leaving Dwight ahead of the only guy on him, streaking down the field. I stepped into the pocket that was seconds away from collapsing, planted, and just let a rocket go dropping the ball right in front of him for a touchdown. The crowd noise from the recording made me remember how loud the stadium had been that night.
“Good throw. You saw your primary receiver was covered, and that he was smart enough to pull his defenders essentially out of the play. You saw the opportunity that gave you downfield, stepped into the pocket instead of bailing out, and put the ball where only your receiver could catch it.”
Even when he was offering praise, I could hear the ‘but’ coming.
“But watch this play from the second quarter.”
There it was. We rewound to an earlier play where I forced a throw into double coverage, nearly getting picked off by Monterey’s free safety.
“You locked onto your target before the snap and never looked anywhere else. Tunnel vision will get you killed at higher levels.”
I watched myself make the throw and cringed. On film, it was obvious how badly I’d misread the coverage.
“See your running back leak out of the backfield? He’s wide open for an easy six yards and a first down. Instead, you tried to thread the needle into coverage that was never going to work.”
That was far from my only mistake. Moreno continued showing me plays from the Monterey game, pointing out missed opportunities and poor decisions I’d made. A three-man rush where I held the ball too long instead of hitting my check down. A blitz I should have seen coming based on the linebacker’s alignment.
Just one mistake after another.
“Quarterbacking is the most mentally demanding position in sports,” he said during one pause. “You have to process information faster than everyone else on the field, all while people are trying to separate your head from your shoulders.”
He popped out the tape and put in our game against Wyatt. One that we’d lost. I’d thrown two interceptions in that game, both of them careless mistakes that cost us points.
“First interception,” Moreno announced as the play began.
I watched myself take the snap and immediately stare down my intended receiver. The safety read me perfectly and jumped the route for an easy pick.
“You telegraphed that throw from the moment you touched the ball. Might as well have sent the defense a written invitation.”
The second interception was even worse. I failed to see a safety rotation that left my receiver in double coverage, then threw the ball late and behind him where the defender could make a play.
“Your footwork deteriorated under pressure,” Moreno observed as we watched the replay. “When you get rattled, you start throwing off your back foot. Inaccurate throws even when you make the right read.”
He was right. On film, I could see myself getting happy feet whenever they brought pressure, dancing around in the pocket instead of stepping up and delivering the ball on time.
“You’re fast and athletic, which is an asset. But you use your legs as a crutch when you should be using your brain.”
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