Chapter 63

Coach Clayton
He’d gathered his coaching staff and the head trainer in the coaches’ room. When everyone was settled, he began the meeting.

“I asked Bryce to join us to give you a quick update. I know he needs to get back to his charges, so I want him to go first.”

“I sent Dawson and Eshete to LAC to get further tests.”

LAC was Los Angeles County’s Medical Center, which housed USC’s Keck School of Medicine and the Los Angeles County College of Nursing. It was the largest medical center in the county. Eshete was Marcus Eshete, the running back who’d been injured when John Johnson hadn’t blocked the defensive tackle on the trap play. He might well be the best returning running back in the Pac-12.

Bryce continued. “In Dawson’s case, we’d initially thought he’d just bruised his left knee. But we did an evaluation and determined that he had a grade one sprain. Obviously, we didn’t feel it was a problem, or we wouldn’t have allowed him to continue to practice. When he came in after practice, there was some slight swelling, so we decided to be safe and have him get an MRI.

“Eshete appears to have a deep contusion on his right shoulder. While we didn’t find any obvious damage beyond the bruising, he is complaining of pain. I should have information on both of them later this afternoon,” Bryce said.

“What about Matt Long?” Coach Clayton asked.

“We’ve started him on the concussion protocol. He’s had some nausea. We’ll keep a close eye on him, but he should be fine. All the other injuries are minor, I’m happy to say.”

“Thank you, Doc. We’ll let you get back to it,” Coach Clayton said.

Once Bryce left, Coach Clayton’s expression turned grim.

“Before we talk about the game, I want to discuss our Dawson-Long problem. This is why I don’t like to have two top-tier quarterbacks recruited in the same class. Tell me what you know.”

“I pulled Johnson aside to give him an earful about deliberately trying to injure Dawson,” Mike Bolton, the offensive line coach, said. “He felt bad about Marcus hurting his shoulder, but when I mentioned Dawson’s name, he just got a scowl on his face and wouldn’t say anything. At first, I thought it was just something to do with Dawson getting the better of him and making him look bad. Then Willy Powell clued me in.”

Powell was USC’s starting center.

“What did he say?” Coach Clayton asked.

“He shared that Matt had been in their ear since before spring ball, saying that Dawson was bad news. He said that David intended to take Matt’s spot at quarterback and something had to be done about him. When David stepped in to play quarterback while Matt was injured, Willy admitted that all the starters planned to not give it their all,” Coach Bolton said.

“I noticed that while we were running drills,” Coach Thomas, the offensive coordinator, interjected. “Two of the starting receivers were trying to make David look bad by not running the correct routes and intentionally not catching the ball. I had a very pointed discussion with one of them. Those same two receivers had no trouble running the correct routes or catching the passes with the other quarterbacks.”

“Everything changed when they saw that David was just filling in and that he was much better than the other backups. When they started to have some success against the defense, he thought they had all let it go. But apparently, Johnson hadn’t. Willy thinks Matt put him up to it,” Coach Bolton said.

“That’s pretty much what Percy Wilkes said after I talked to him,” Coach Farrow added. “He said that David had been told that Matt planned to do something to him. At first, the defense didn’t buy it because intentionally hurting a teammate was something they didn’t want to think about. Then Matt said what he did in practice when David replaced him. Add to that what happened yesterday.

“Then remember that video that showed Matt fighting with those frat guys and Dawson saving his butt. You might think they’d get along better after that, but it apparently made their relationship worse somehow.

“Right now, we have a serious problem, and if we don’t handle it, team chemistry will be nonexistent,” Coach Farrow said to give the defense’s perspective on the situation.

“It doesn’t help that Dawson put on a show at the end. Granted, it was against mostly backups,” Coach Thomas added.

“That last play was the second-team offense against the number one defense. It was a busted play from the beginning. His escape and run was something that Matt would never be able to pull off,” Coach Farrow reminded everyone.

Coach Clayton was painfully aware of that. He had to go to a booster event tonight and was sure it would be brought up. In a way, he regretted letting David get a shot at running the offense because now he had a quarterback controversy on his hands. To him, regardless of what others might think, if a conference game were to be played tomorrow, Matt would start. However, give David all summer to learn the offense ... who knew?

“Thoughts on what we should do to rectify the situation?” Coach Clayton asked.

“The easy scapegoat is John,” Coach Farrow suggested.

“The problem is, John wasn’t the one who caused this. If it were anyone else, I would be on board. John isn’t smart enough to have thought this up. He’s like the dog you sic on someone. What happened is Matt’s fault, much more so than John’s,” Coach Thomas weighed in.

“I agree. If we disregard Matt’s influence over John, I can sell it that he was just doing what he was told,” Coach Farrow said.

“Well, I can’t do nothing. What do you think if I suspended Matt, John, and Percy for one game? Our first game is against UNLV, and we should win that handily, even without Matt at quarterback,” Coach Clayton suggested.

“Matt and David also need to publicly bury the hatchet. This feud has to end, or we’ll have a serious locker-room issue,” Coach Thomas said.

“Agreed. And it wouldn’t hurt if you gave David the scholarship you promised him,” Coach Farrow said to remind his head coach.

Coach Clayton gave Coach Farrow a worried look for saying that in front of the entire coaching staff. He’d been happy when the baseball team had offered David a scholarship this semester but knew he would have to provide David one come fall. Still, the coach decided he would wait and see whether David turned into a problem. It would be easier to get rid of him if he wasn’t a scholarship player. Best to deliberately ignore Coach Farrow’s suggestion for now, he thought.

“Coaches Farrow and Thomas will let Percy and John know about their one-game suspensions. I’ll talk to Matt after I get done with my press obligations. I plan to sit down with Matt and David tomorrow morning and have a team meeting at eleven.

“Is there anything else right now?” Coach Clayton asked.

No one had anything. They would get back together that afternoon to break down the game film. The head coach sent them to put the word out, then went to the press room where he would recap the spring game and spring practice as a whole.