Chapter 21: Football Camp - Kentucky

Tuesday June 10, 2014 – Freshman Year

Mom dropped Dad and me off at the school. We were meeting the bus by the football stadium at ten o'clock. Coach Hope and Brad were the first two there. I could tell something was up.

"We wanted to get you two together and clear the air. We're a team come this fall, and if you two are not on the same page we have a problem," Coach Hope told us. "Who wants to start?"

Brad shot off his mouth before I had a chance to react.

"David thinks he's God's gift to football and needs to be knocked down a few notches so that he can play within a scheme my dad is bringing to Lincoln. It might do him a world of good to ride the bench for a year and learn from someone who has actually run the offense."

I could have said that this particular God's gift could outplay him any day of the week, but that would have been childish.

"Maybe you missed the memo. Your dad has declared you as our starting quarterback. I have already said I will play wherever I'm needed. My goal is for us to win State this year. If that means, I need to play another position, so be it. I'm still waiting for you to make a similar commitment," I shot back.

"What? You think I have to be part of your workout program to be a team player? Kiss my ass."

"That right there is your problem. You have decided the program is worthless, just because you're not in control. Where you're missing the boat, is I don't control anything. You constantly make derogatory remarks about me, and anyone who's not in your little clique."

"You're no better. Calling us a bunch of ass-hats is being committed to the program? You're so full of self-righteous shit that you think the world is brown. We are the core of next year's team and the sooner you accept that, the better off you'll be."

"I apologize for calling you a bunch of ass-hats. It was a sophomoric reaction to your bunch of bench warmers who think that just because they will be seniors they will start."

"Okay, that was a good beginning," Coach Hope said. "I think we may have to get you two into couple's therapy."

"Coach, I for one feel much better. I think open dialog is what we need," I said as Dad dragged me away.

How dare him! I was just getting warmed up. I guess Brad and I wouldn't be roommates. When we were separated, Dad shook his head.

"I swear that you inherited too much of your mother sometimes. Do you even think Brad knows what half the words you were throwing at him even mean? Derogatory? Sophomoric? Hell, he's a Neanderthal."

I burst out laughing.

"What?" he demanded.

"Neanderthal? Next you'll be saying he has a truculent personality."

"We should never have gotten you that word-a-day calendar" he teased me.

"Hey, Tami used those words on me. I'm just happy I looked them up, and now can use them in a sentence."

We had the bus loaded by ten-thirty. I sent the guys, minus Brad who had to sit next to his dad, to the back of the bus. We had a forty minute drive to Washington High. I got into the aisle and faced them.

"I have three things. The first is we can no longer call Brad or his buddy's ass-hats."

"We could call them assets," Mike suggested.

"I like that. They would never know we thought they were jerks."

"We can hear you up here," Dad told us.

"Oops. We will have to think of something else. The second thing I wanted to talk to all of you ass-hats and find out why the hell you broke up with your girlfriends. I heard a strange rumor that I was responsible in some way."

"We thought they would want to be friends with benefits with us," Ed offered. "We see you do it all the time."

"You bunch of dorks. How is that working out for you?"

"Not so good. Cassidy told me she might have to hurt me if I don't quit calling to apologize," Jim said.

"I was afraid of that. Are any of you having any luck with your plan?" I asked.

No one would meet my eye.

"Here's the new rule. You are all dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to women. From now on, before you do something like this, you will either talk to me or another woman. Mike, I'm not a woman! We'll use this week as a team bonding experience. When we get back, we'll work on getting you ready to date again. Are we clear?"

They mumbled.

"I said, are we clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

"The third thing is Washington is coming as our guest. It's okay to let them know we are superior in every way. But they are like small children. We need to help them learn to be better. Plus, they are a lot of fun."

They chuckled at that.

"Brad, get back here!" I called.

"What do you want," he grumped.

"You have a choice. Sit by your dad for the whole trip, or become part of the team."

"I want to be part of the team. I'll go nuts if I have to hang out with dad the whole time."

"I heard that," Coach Hope told Brad.

"Team, meet your starting quarterback for next year. I want you to make an effort to get to know him. If you want to have hours of fun, ask him about his prom date with Lisa Felton."

That got their attention. I went up front and sat by my Dad. Brad needed to get to know them without me around.

"Just so you know, you don't drive me nuts," I told my Dad.

"Same here," he said as he messed up my hair.

We pulled up to Washington and they were all milling around. I jumped off the bus.

"I thought we were picking up a football team," I teased them.

The bus driver got off and opened the storage under the bus. Ty came over and hugged me.

"Are you trying to start trouble already?"

"Of course."

Coach Hope and my Dad got off followed by Brad and the rest of the team. Everybody introduced themselves. I introduced Dad and Coach Hope to Darryl Wilson, Ty's dad, and Coach Crouch. I was surprised that Washington's head coach was going. Ty had told me that one of the assistants was going. The two coaches got us quieted down and paying attention.

"The ride to Lexington is five hours. During the trip, I want you to send your contact information to David. Once he has it, he'll send a text to add everyone's contact info to your phone. We'll also send you a schedule that will remind you when and where you need to be. Once we get off the bus, I want you to always go with a buddy. That means if you want to go running or lifting, find a friend. Finally, it is your job to be on time. Don't make me come looking for you," Coach Crouch told us.

We all loaded onto the bus and got settled. I used the event app that Lily had found for me. It was meant for registration. You entered everyone's contact information, got some personal anecdotes and took their picture. Once registration was complete, it sent everyone a link that loaded the app on their device and added the whole group to their contacts. It also updated their calendar, complete with alarms and walking directions based on where your phone was.

For the coaches, there was an administrative feature: the Find function. If someone was missing, we could at least find their phone. The hope was that they would have it with them.

It took me over two hours to get everyone loaded into the app. When I sent it out they quickly figured out that we had funny things to say about each player. Lily and Ty had worked to get some dirt on everyone. Mine was all about how Adrienne had dumped me for Prom. Lily even got Adrienne to record a video saying she had no idea who this stalker was. I think that was payback for baby gate, from when I told the reporters at Prom she was carrying my baby.

Cassidy had sent me a picture of Coach Hope before he joined the Marines. He was a hundred-fifty pounds, soaking wet! For Brad, we had pictures of Lisa Felton in some of her better school clothes. How she didn't violate at least one school dress code policy was beyond me. Let's just say Brad got a lot of high fives.

We arrived in Lexington at four that afternoon. They were allowing us to move into the dorms a day early because we had driven so far and had such a big group. We all got key cards to get us into the dorm and the cafeteria. The cards also gave us access to the football facilities. I was excited that John Phillips was assigned to be our guide. He was staying on our dorm floor to help us with anything we needed. He made sure everyone was settled into their dorm room. I was put with Isaac Fellow, Washington's quarterback. Mike was rooming with Brad.

Once we were done, John had us meet in the lounge in shorts and t-shirts. Before John could start, I got up.

"You guys need to know who this is. This is John Phillips. His high school won state two of the four years he was there. He was the starting quarterback the last two years when they won. He holds the state record for the most touchdowns in a season with seventy-two. He was named All-State both his junior and senior years. He was named MVP of the championship game his senior year. He is also the prize recruit for Kentucky's nationally ranked recruiting class."

"I'm sure you are going to work on breaking all of my records before you come here."

"Oh, yeah! You are so riding the bench when I show up," I teased him.

"I have no idea how you guys put up with him. Anyways, I'm going to show you around and take you to the football facilities. I hear you want to work out. I think I'll join you since I haven't gotten a chance today."

John showed us around campus and then took us to the Nutter Center and showed us where everything was. When we were done, Coach Hope ran us through our sixty minutes of hell. I was working out next to Tim and Mike. When we were done, we looked around and about half of the Washington team was dry heaving. I was amused to see John curled up in a ball.

I went and helped Ty up.

"Domination baby! We own the fourth quarter," I teased him.

"How often do you do that?" Ty asked.

"Five times a week since February," Mike told him.

I was happy to see Jim helping Brad up. I went over to John and whispered, "I thought you were in shape?"

He glared at me. I helped him up.

"We had it easy today. Normally Coach Hope has his daughter lead us. She would have killed you," I told him.

John took us back to the dorms and we showered and ate. Some of the guys went to movie night. Others walked the campus. I stayed in and caught up with Tami on video chat. She had started her job with Teddy Wesleyan.

Wednesday June 11, 2014 – Freshman Year

I got up early, to run, and found John waiting for me. We didn't say a word as we did our morning routine of stretching. We were used to doing it alone and it was our personal time. I let him lead the way since he was now living on campus taking summer classes. The run reminded me of why I was interested in going to college here.

"You want to see something neat?" John asked me.

"Sure."

"It's a long run, think you can keep up?"

I just smiled at him.

John took us by the football stadium and then down Alumni Drive. We came to a park. It was called The University of Kentucky Arboretum.

"This is a hundred acre park that has a path all around it," John told me.

"What the heck is an arboretum?" I asked.

"They tell me it's a collection of trees."

Not profound, but it seemed accurate. The park actually reminded me of a garden. Dad would love this place. We had a good run, about 2.5 miles just in the park, and came back in time for everyone to go to breakfast. At breakfast I told Dad about the park. He had free time this afternoon and planned on checking it out.

One thing I learned during the run was I was in better shape than John. His pace was not nearly as fast as my normal pace. I challenged him to pick up his speed where it was just fast enough where he could still talk, but not so fast where he was just gasping. I enjoyed the company too much to complain. I would have to work out harder later to make up for it.

Today was a lifting day so John took the Lincoln team. Washington was taken on a tour of the rest of the campus. Last night Isaac had confided to me that the Washington team couldn't believe how hard we worked out. They had made a vow to catch up. I had to chuckle when they didn't show up to work out this morning. Word would get out how hard we worked, and teams would be beaten before we ever played them.

When we were done, we still had an hour before we needed to report. Mike, Wolf, Bill and I went to the practice field and began running our drills. I saw Brad watching us. I waved him over and let him rotate in. We switched to the defended drills and Bill was wearing Wolf out so I went over to cover him.

Bill had been asking me to challenge him more. He wanted me to be more physical so he could learn to fight me off. He was taunting me this morning to get my head into the game.

"Come on pussy. There are people watching and I'm going to make you look foolish."

"Bring it on," I challenged him.

I set up right on him. He was going to have to fight to get past me. Brad was quarterbacking.

"Go!"

I took two hands and popped Bill in the shoulders and put him on his ass. We never stopped until the ball was thrown so Bill got up and ducked his shoulder and did a nice swim move to get a step on me. I turned my hips to run with him keeping my body between him and the ball. Bill was quicker in making his moves than I was, but with my height and long arms I could stay with him; at least within Brad's range.

Brad dropped the pass where he thought only Bill could grab it. I jumped and got a hand on it as Bill got two on it. I ripped it out of Bill's hands and then did a little jig. Bill knocked me down for good measure. I hadn't realized it but while we were running our drills the campers had come out onto the practice field to watch us.

A guy with a PA started calling out where everyone should go. When they called quarterbacks, I started to head off when one of the coaches grabbed my arm.

"Oh, no you don't! You're coming with me."

"I'm sorry, sir, but where are we going?"

"I'm BJ Erickson, Defensive Coordinator and Linebacker Coach. You're David Dawson, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm stealing you. Those yahoos will just mess up the way you throw. I think you have more potential on this side of the ball. You just showed what you can do against a high-level division one talent. I want to teach you how to dominate that talent."

I thought about it, but I wasn't sure.

"Can I do both?"

"Of course you can. We'll work with you in the morning and then in the afternoon you go play quarterback. Now, we have camp for everyone and then we have camp for the elite. See that big bruiser at the end?" he asked as I nodded. "Go tell him I want him to teach you to be a middle linebacker."

I went and put my football gear on. The bruiser turned out to be their soon-to-be four year starter at the position. He gave me the basics: how to get into stance and move as a linebacker. He glided, parallel to the line, and then he exploded to the ball. Right before lunch, he brought over a huge lineman to teach me how to shed blocks. That kid had to outweigh me by a hundred pounds.

"He is probably going to move you around because you have not put on enough weight yet. But I want you to stand him up and get by him."

The first time was a disaster. The brute just ran over me. Holy cow, he was strong. I got up and we went again. This time I decided to give him a shot and see if I could slow him down that way. He came off the ball and tried to control me, but I put my shoulder down and hit him like I would a defensive lineman. There was a tremendous crack of the pads that had everyone turning to see what was going on.

Unlike a regular high school guy, this guy absorbed the hit and got a big paw on me and pulled me down. Damn it, that didn't work.

Then I remembered one of Cassidy's lessons. You don't meet force with force. My goal was to get past this guy and make a tackle, not tie him up.

The next play I acted like I was going to take him head on and, at the last moment, I slammed both my palms into his left shoulder to redirect his momentum and I walked through the hole. This guy was intense. I had heard all the words before, but he had some new combinations.

The next time he thought he would be ready for me and was back on his heels. This time I smacked the crap out of him, putting him on his ass.

On the next play, I used the same swim move that Bill had used on me. This time he kept me engaged, but we both knew I had beaten him.

We were called to lunch. The monster quit growling at me and took off his helmet. He just shook his head at me as we trotted into the Nutter Center to grab a quick shower and then go eat. I couldn't believe how many guys had not even broken a sweat. I could smell myself, so I knew I needed a shower.

After lunch, we were pulled into an auditorium to watch some of the morning's practice. I hadn't realized they were videotaping anything. I found our group. They had saved me a seat next to Coach Hope. Kentucky's Head Coach, Matt Styles, came to the podium. I looked around and would guess there were three hundred campers and about fifty or more high school coaches in the audience.

"Good afternoon. Good to see everybody. I would like to welcome you all to the University of Kentucky. I'm impressed you all want to improve your game. We're excited, excited that each and every one of you are here today. Our players and coaches have worked extremely hard to get ready for you.

"After this session, the other coaches and I will show you some things that I think will help improve your game. The offensive and defensive players will be separated and we will have a one hour film session. Then we'll get into helmets, and shoulder pads. We'll run drills and then we'll play some seven-on-seven."

He next brought up Ned Grey, the offensive coordinator. Coach Grey showed highlights of the morning practice. He singled out people that had done well. From our group, Ty and Bill made the video.

Then he brought up BJ Erikson the defensive coordinator. Cory, one of the Grant brothers from Washington, was singled out for his defensive play.

Then Coach Styles came to the podium.

"I want to show everyone an example of the kind of improvement that can occur at a camp like this. I want Trevor Alan to come up here."

I recognized the behemoth I had been going head-to-head with.

"Trevor will be a senior this year and is rated one of the top linemen prospects in the country. We had a little one-on-one drill this morning and I want you all to see what Trevor does to linebackers."

He played Trevor manhandling me and putting me on my ass. Several of the guys recognized me and started to give me shit. Then they saw me try to level him and Trevor just shrugged it off.

"Now I want David Dawson to join us."

I got up and went up front. I made a point of not standing too close to Trevor and everyone laughed.

"David plays quarterback for Lincoln High and is a top ten national prospect in the upcoming sophomore class. Coach Erikson talked him into playing a little defense this morning because of this particular play."

He ran the play with Bill and me before practice.

"We had David work on his line backing skills this morning, hoping we would see something like this."

The next play showed me pushing Trevor to change his momentum and getting around him. Then I put him on his ass and finally I used the swim move to beat him to the other side.

"David, tell us what made the difference in those three plays compared to the first ones where Trevor controlled things."

"Well, I was warned that I needed to get stronger if I wanted to play in college. Trevor made a believer out of me. Then I remembered what Coach Hope's daughter, Cassidy, taught us. You don't meet force with force. You defeat force by redirecting it. That is why I pushed Trevor to the side."

"But the next play you ran over him."

"Yes sir, can you show that again. I just want to remind Trevor that it can be done."

He started the play again.

"See how he is back on his heels? He was ready for me to try and move him again. His force was not coming at me so I became the force and put him on his ass," I looked over and gave Trevor a sheepish grin. "Sorry, man."

I went with the offensive players and then they sent the quarterbacks to a smaller conference room. I was surprised there were only eight of us. We had brought four on our bus.

Coach Grey came in and sat down at the head of the table.

"We don't have much to show you on video yet so I wanted to teach you how to evaluate game film. The further you go in football the more important it will be to prepare by knowing what to expect from the other team. John, please hand out the check sheet."

John handed us out a form with a long list of questions.

"You need to watch game film with a purpose and a plan. The purpose is to find ways to defeat your opponent and the plan is this check list. It will make you do it the same way every time so you don't miss anything."

He put the form on the screen behind him.

"At the top of the form, you put the opponent. Right under that, you have three slots for their opponent in the videos you watch. Next, you put down their coverage packages. The form breaks it down by their lead coverage against a pro set, twins, trips, etc. You will find that most teams only have a few consistent packages, though they may seem to start differently. You will use the form to find their core set.

"We do this because we want to make sure you understand what their tendency is against each one of your formations," Coach Grey said.

I was thinking that I needed to get Alan and Lily together, and we should convert this form to something more dynamic. I was also thinking this is what the defense needs to be doing in reverse. I was sure they were, but here they were just showing me what they do for my position. It would be nice to be able to have a laptop in the booth and pull up third and long, and see their tendencies when we set up in trips, for example.

I thought of another great use. During the game have the software available and one of the coaches input what was happening on each play. You could run a comparison between what we expected and what they were actually doing. It might find differences we could use to make adjustments.

I raised my hand.

"Dawson."

"Coach, do you use the same forms for the defense?"

"Good question. No we don't," he told me then he turned to one of the assistants. "Go over to BJ's office and have them get you the forms they use when watching game film. Have them make enough copies for everyone."

"Thanks, Coach," I said.

"The next section asks about their defensive backfield. There are a slew of questions here. This is especially important to your receivers. Your answer tells you who their best cover guy is and why. Who is their worst guy and why.

"The next is how do their safeties cover the run? Are they in a cover four and are going to be aggressive in run support. Are they soft, playing cover two? How do they play? Can we dictate what they will do based on our formation?

"How do the safeties cover the pass? Can we get somebody matched up and run a vertical route? Are they too loose and do we need to throw the ball underneath?

"When do they blitz? Down and distance? Where does the blitz come from? What area of the field and situation? Knowing when and from where it is likely to come is sometimes the difference in a game.

"Next is can we get mismatches in our formation? Be careful with this one. I have never seen a good receiver who doesn't think he can beat a defender. Think about this. Could we get a safety to cover a wide receiver? Could we get a big tight end covered by their smallest corner?

"Next is to figure out how you tell what coverage they are going to be in. Look for keys that you can go to and know how they are setting up. It's better to know it before the play than to try to figure it out on the fly.

"What are our keys to run an audible? I'm not a guy that likes to call an audible, but if a play isn't going to be successful I sure don't want to waste it. So every week you should have three to five audible plays so you can get out of a bad situation and turn it into something that has a chance."

Coach Grey ran us through the rest of the sheet. He then brought up game film and he would freeze it before the snap. We would write down our observations. It made looking at game film so much easier. I was seeing things I never had before. If I learned nothing else, the trip was worth it for this.

The afternoon was spent running drills and then we played seven-on-seven. Since there were only eight quarterbacks, we each got to play with three different teams. It was fun playing with the different guys. My teams went 2 – 1. We would have gone 3 – 0 but John was a referee, and said I took too long to throw the winning touchdown.

Afterwards, we had dinner and then free time. We had to be back to the dorm by eleven o'clock. The university had several student activities. The student union had bowling, darts and pool. They had an open swim at the aquatic center. There was a movie theater within walking distance.

The chaperones were taking a majority of the guys to the student union. Coach Hope had promised everyone pizza so that sold it. John had taken me aside and told me that he was thinking of joining Theta Chi and they were having a little get together with Chi Omega. I told Jim, Wolf, Mike and Bill, and they all agreed to go. Since my guys are complete dumb-asses, I had to give them all condoms. John said he had his own, which floored me because I thought he had a steady girlfriend who was coming here to be with him.

When we got to the party, John introduced us to Boomer and Flea.

"Guys, tonight is mystery date night. No one gives out a real name, we all use nicknames. So if you've got one, great; otherwise, we get to give you one."

When it came time for Mike, I shouted out BMOC. He flipped me off, but got stuck with it. They gave me GQ and I about choked when John got tagged with Player.

I was relieved when Flea told us we couldn't drink. They had plenty of coolers of soda. Boomer warned us not to touch the Mind Wipe Punch. That was for the girls. We were early, so they had us help set up. They showed us the Make Out Lounge. The room was set up with screens and beanbag chairs. At 9:00 on the dot, twenty Chi Omega sisters showed up in mass. Since it was summer school, the Theta Chi only had eleven guys, so the guys and I helped make up the difference.

I was mentally evaluating all the women. They came in all shapes and sizes. They talked Flea into being the DJ and the music started. The girls were in a good mood and it seemed they may have started before the party. I was contemplating the tall brunette with a killer ass or a perky blonde that put my teeth on edge because she was so hot. I saw one of the fraternity guys ask the blonde to dance so I went over to the brunette.

"Would you like to dance?"

"Not yet, but look me up later. I have some things I have to take care of. While you wait, could you dance with Sure Thing?"

I looked at the girl she was indicating. She blushed when the tall girl said her name. The girl was Emo looking with pink and purple highlights in her hair. She even had black nail polish. She was last on my list, but if there is a list don't you have to work through it? What the heck.

"Sure, I would love to," I said which got a nice smile from the tall girl.

We went out on the dance floor and she did this little thing where she would put one hand up and the other on her tummy and wiggle her hips. Her moves had me wanting to put my hand on her tummy.

"So I take it you didn't pick out your nickname."

"No, Stork thought that it would be funny. How did you get GQ?"

"I model part-time," I told her.

"Anything I've seen?"

"I'm currently on air in the Red commercial."

"I thought you looked familiar. Take your shirt off."

"No, not happening. I get teased enough by the guys. I don't need to do it again." I said.

"I suppose you take your shirt off a lot," she goaded me.

"Too much. Sooo, let's change the subject. How come you look Goth?"

"Funny story, I lost a bet."

"So tell me..."

"Nope, not until you lose the shirt."

The song ended so I walked Sure Thing back to her sisters. Stork was talking to two other sisters. The conversation seemed intense, so I cut my losses and got another soda. I checked the crowd and I was proud to see all my guys were talking to girls.

I was trying to figure out what to do next when a Theta Chi came up and introduced himself.

"Hey, call me Major for the night," he said as he shook my hand.

"GQ," I offered.