Chapter 39

David
As David was finishing up his morning run, he sent his younger brother a text.

DSquared: ’Make sure you get Colt to camp—on time!’

BulldogQB1: ’On it’

David entered the back door and found Dare and Corvus at the counter, eating cereal. Typically, Cassidy would have made breakfast for them.

“Cassidy went out to work on the rowing team-building event,” Dare explained.

“The scavenger hunt?” David asked.

“Yeah. She and Andy are working out all the details,” Corvus said.

“Okay. So, are you ready for today?” David asked, changing the subject.

“The headgear arrived. All we have to do is test it,” Dare assured him.

The VR project had taken an exciting turn. During negotiations, USC had balked at the licensing agreement. They had initially agreed to provide all the equipment but added a four-year exclusive use clause. The reason given was that was how long David would play ball at USC. They didn’t want anyone else to have their competitive advantage.

David had already sent a prototype to Bo Harrington so his team at Western Michigan could use it. He was a man of his word, so he pushed back. The powers that be at USC were entrenched and wanted to make a claim that he’d helped develop the VR software and tested it on campus. Some corporate type felt the university owned it.

Ms. Dixon shut that down, but she warned Dare and Corvus that they should ‘create’ stuff away from campus in the future. She cautioned that MIT might also try to make a claim if they used any university resources there. People had been screwed out of their ideas numerous times in university settings.

Ms. Dixon also advised Dare and Corvus that they should get their patent filing going. She had an associate who could help them with that.

David decided to bite the bullet and purchase all the gear needed, including new graphics cards for the Stevens Academic Center PCs.

Their first significant software test would occur today when it was shown to all the football campers. Bryant Franzese was more excited than the two creators. For those recruits who were still undecided, he wanted to use it as the deciding reason why they should pick USC to play football.

“Megan sent me a message that she’s cutting you guys off. I guess you went over budget,” David said with a stern look.

Corvus got a panicked look, but Dare shook his head to signal his friend not to react. He knew that David wanted this to work as much as they did. This was just his way of reminding them not to go crazy buying stuff.

David saw they had everything in hand, so he went up to take his shower.

As he washed his hair, he remembered the other matter Ms. Dixon was working on: the KAP Agency contract. Crystal’s warning had proven true. The agreement to be his entertainment agent was slanted in KAP’s favor at every turn. While her team could handle the usual contract stuff, she worried about the entertainment aspects. She explained that, like she’d done with the NCAA negotiations, she wanted to hire an outside entertainment-law expert to help with that.

Usually, he would have turned to Lexi for guidance. But that wasn’t happening, so he thought about calling Kent Crain and Frank Ingram for advice. Crystal had overheard him talking to Ms. Dixon and stopped him.

“What exactly are you looking for?”

“Someone to help us with the entertainment parts of our contract with your dad’s company.”

“That’s actually smart,” Crystal said. “My dad will fight like crazy for you when it comes to negotiations with the studios. But he fights just as hard for his company.”

“I’m sure most of his clients have no idea. They’re just happy when they get their payday,” David said.

“I happen to know who my dad’s biggest rival is. He knows all Dad’s dirty tricks because he taught them to him. The only problem is that he’s retired, but I could call him and get him to help you,” Crystal offered.

It turned out that it was her grandfather, Foster Knaggy. When she called him, he was hesitant until he understood this was for his granddaughter’s ‘special’ friend. Ms. Dixon talked to him and seemed to have a lawyer-like mental orgasm when she realized the depth of his expertise. She hired him after only a fifteen-minute video chat.

It wasn’t lost on David that Crystal had helped him with the issue rather than her dad. It had only been a few weeks since they’d started their faux dating, but he found it was becoming less fake. She wasn’t acting like the gold digger he’d envisioned.

Part of his reason for becoming more open-minded about Crystal was that she hadn’t tried to be the dominant one in their relationship. She was savvy enough to realize that David wouldn’t allow her to have her way just because of her looks. She’d seen firsthand the women he’d dated in the past. He was also more mature than the jocks she’d previously been involved with. Crystal didn’t need to manage David like she’d had to with Matt and others. It was a refreshing feeling for her.

With that knowledge, she’d relaxed around David. While she was quite capable, as he saw when she helped him with her dad, Crystal had figured out that David would come to her when he wanted help. And she accepted that—easily, to her surprise. He noticed that she seemed happier with their arrangement compared to how she’d appeared before with Matt and Andres.

After morning classes, he grabbed a quick lunch and then went to football camp. He located his brother and Colt. They were teamed up, and Coach Clayton and Matt were supervising their drills. David joined Coach Mason on the sideline where they could watch.

He observed several plays before seeing that they were both still taking that small extra step every time, causing them to overthrow their receivers.

“Your forms look fine. You just need to aim lower,” Matt suggested.

Coach Mason made a strangled noise but kept his mouth shut.

A half-hour later, ‘aiming lower’ was a disaster. Phil and Colt were both either throwing interceptions or bouncing the ball to their receivers.

“I’ve seen enough. Take a break. Matt and I will be back in thirty minutes,” Coach Clayton announced.

“Mind if I talk to the campers while you’re gone?” David asked.

“Do what you want,” Coach Clayton said dismissively and left.

When the other coaches saw Coach Clayton give his players some free time, they did the same. David soon found nearly a hundred high school football players gathered in a semi-circle around him as he addressed Phil and Colt.

“You two stop ‘aiming’ the ball. It’s that little hop we talked about yesterday that’s causing your passes to sail. Coach Mason and I will help you with that after today’s session,” David said. Then he turned to everyone else.

“Hey, guys, welcome to USC. I’m David Dawson. This wasn’t really a scheduled break, so why don’t we make this about you? What do you want to know?”

“What’s the most important thing you need to learn to be a successful quarterback?”

“Well, there are actually two: repetition and preparation. For those of you who are quarterbacks, you should be throwing the ball as often as you can. When I was in high school, I used to go out and throw into garbage cans when I didn’t have anyone to throw to. For those of you who are receivers, you should be catching hundreds of balls a day. Seriously, hundreds. The same goes for every position. You want to make it so that you no longer have to think, that your body just knows as you build muscle memory.

“For games, the skill I learned that helped me the most was how to watch game film. Without it, it’s like playing poker without knowing how to read your opponents. You will lose money. In our case, we lose games.

“When I step up under center, I am diagnosing the defense before the snap. Based on what I see, I immediately know where the ball should go. That skill will allow you to become better at getting the ball out of your hands and into the hands of your playmakers. If you do it right, the defense doesn’t have time to react. I like to put a clock on it and try to average about two and a half seconds from snap to release,” David explained.

“David’s right,” Coach Mason said. “The time to throw is a key stat. But the time between hike and throw also depends greatly on the depth of routes, that is, the time it takes receivers to get into position. It also depends on your ability to quickly read defenses, your line’s blocking efficiency, and the pass rush effectiveness.

“My point is that reaching your two-and-a-half-second goal requires a team effort.”

“Doesn’t quarterback style also play a role?” Phil asked.

David smiled and shook his head.

“When I was in high school, one of my nicknames was Captain Chaos because I ran all over the field to try to extend plays. Coach Mason used to lose his mind because he preached that I should be a pocket passer.

“Being Captain Chaos helped my high school win three straight state championships. But now that I’ve gone through spring practice at the college level, I am starting to see Coach Mason’s point. It might be better to throw the ball away instead of forcing something,” David said.

“Why is that?” Colt asked.

Coach Mason jumped in.

“I coached more years in the NFL than I care to admit. The game at that level is a grind. Anything that saves your energy and helps you avoid injury makes a big difference as the year goes on. Another benefit is that it cuts down on negative-yardage plays like sacks and fumbles.”

“Take a look at some of the greats, and you’ll see that pocket passers have much longer careers because their bodies hold up,” David added.

“Depth of route is a double-edged sword,” Coach Mason said. “I once had a crafty veteran running our offense, but we had no depth. To protect him, I changed the offense to not throw deep. We relied on short routes so he could release the ball quickly to avoid injury.

“What happened was when the defense put pressure on, I had him dump the ball off with a sideline or outlet pass. The defensive backs knew this, so our interceptions went up because they could crowd our receivers at the line of scrimmage at the start of a play without consequences. They also started anticipating sideline passes and jumping the short out-routes. That can lead to a lot of pick-sixes.”