Chapter 54

David
For fall football practice, USC made all their players move into the athletic dorm. David’s roommate was Craig Hendricks, one of USC’s wide receivers. David actually knew him before coming to campus; Craig had been on his seven-on-seven Elite 11 team the summer before his junior year in high school. As he remembered, Craig was no slouch, but there were better receivers on his team at Elite 11. Bill had followed through on his promise to give David intel on all the receivers, and his assessment agreed with David’s.

Craig had arrived first and was unpacking when David walked in. Sitting on his bed was Bill Callaway, his former high school teammate.

“Boys,” David said as he sauntered in.

David tossed his duffle bag onto the bed before giving them both a fist bump.

“Did you hear the news?” Bill asked.

“Yeah, they picked Coach Merritt to take Coach Clayton’s place,” David said.

“I hope that means they’ll have open competition this fall,” Craig said.

Craig would be a junior this year but classified as a redshirt sophomore. He’d been injured in the second game of the previous season and sat out the rest of the year. David was sure that Craig and Bill had rehabbed together.

David looked around the room and shuddered inside. It looked like a prison cell, with a closet, twin XL-size bed, and desk on each side of the room. Craig had better be the best roommate ever, or David would kill him before the end of fall practice. He hadn’t had to sleep in the same room with another guy since he was like four or five.

He debated whether it would be possible to slip out and spend the night at his townhouse, which was only five blocks away. He was sure Craig would prefer a single.

“We have a pre-fall-practice team meeting in fifteen. Get changed, and we’ll walk over,” Bill said.

David rooted through his duffle bag and found a pair of USC shorts and a t-shirt he’d borrowed from the school and put them on so they could go to the team meeting room.

David had sent a message to all the players who’d worked out with him over the summer. He told them to meet him out front. When he came out the front door, thirty-five guys were waiting for the three of them. They were primarily backups and freshmen.

Craig gave him a curious look, but David just smiled at his workout buddies. Like he’d done in high school, David was building the core of the football team’s future.

“Good to see you all. We’ll catch up after the meeting,” David promised.

“Line up on Dawson!” Bear called out.

David appreciated having the giant take charge. No one would ever question him. David began to walk to the John McKay Center as his teammates fell into line, two by two.

As they approached the entrance, they saw Coach Merritt greeting players as they entered the building. He had an amused look when he saw David leading in his group of men.

“These are the guys you practiced with this summer?” Coach Merritt asked as he shook David’s hand.

“Yes, sir,” David said. “First of all, congratulations on your new position. Each and every one of us will do whatever you ask. With that said, I’ll let them introduce themselves.”

It wasn’t that Coach Merritt didn’t know each player, but it was a chance to make a first impression for fall ball as their new head coach.

David’s cadre all filed in and sat down in the middle of the team auditorium. They left room for the starters to sit down in front, but David was putting everyone on notice that his guys were a united group. The message he hoped to convey was that USC’s football team should all come together.

Once everyone was seated, Coach Merritt went to the front of the room.

“Welcome back. I hope you had some quality time off with your friends and family.”

He went to the podium and looked out over the 104 men participating in fall practice. David didn’t know it yet, but their starting placekicker was missing.

“Our new athletic director wanted to come in and say a few words before I talk to you and explain our practice schedule,” Coach Merritt said. “I would like to introduce Drew Langford, who joins us after guiding Baylor through their turnaround.”

Drew looked like a businessman who’d dressed down for his audience. He was wearing khaki pants and a USC pullover with the Nike logo on the left upper chest, but the dead giveaway was the $500 shoes.

Drew shook their coach’s hand and took the podium, where he began talking.

“People ask me, ‘How do you become successful?’ I can sum it up in one word: focus.

“As you go through every day’s tasks, be it a workout in the weight room, a conditioning run, practice, in the classroom—focus on what you are doing. Don’t cheat yourself out of a rep, a play, a practice, or a learning opportunity. Because you’re going to get tired, you’re going to get sore, you’re going to get bored. But what I can tell you about us is we’re tough.

“Trojans are tough; they always have been. Physically tough, mentally tough. When other people quit, we keep going. When other people fall down, we stand back up. Let’s go out and surprise some people. Let’s show them what it means to be USC Trojans,” Drew said.

“I just felt a tingle go down my leg,” Knackers quipped as everyone politely clapped.

“Thanks, Drew. That was inspirational,” Coach Merritt said.

When the AD left the room, Coach Merritt turned to his men.

“First things first. We’re going to win games, and we’ll play the best players to win those games. And we aren’t assuming any of them is going to be an easy game. And we don’t think we’ll have the opportunity to play just anyone who wants to play. Just so we’re clear: we will play anybody who’ll help us win a game. That’s what we’re going to do. So, I don’t think anybody should expect us to do anything else.

“What does that mean? It means we don’t have a depth chart for the first week on day one. Positions will be earned, not given,” Coach Merritt said to stunned silence.

“Are we clear?!” Coach Merritt barked.

“Yes, sir!” came the thundering response.

“Okay. Now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you what you can expect. The best head coach I ever had, I knew what he expected. I’ve worked at other places where that was never really defined. It’s amazing to me that people either work with or for someone, and it’s assumed you know what they want,” he said.

As he spoke, team managers filed in with large manila envelopes bearing the USC logo. They lined up and handed a stack to the player at the end of each row. Soon, everyone had one.

“If you define what everyone’s supposed to do,” Coach Merritt continued, “and then let them do it, you’ll be successful. That doesn’t just apply to football; it applies to life. I mean, when we run a play on film, everyone can see that if they’d just done what they were supposed to do, we would have been successful.”

Coach Merritt paused for effect.

“Do your job. You will hear me say that a thousand times between now and the beginning of the season. We can be a much better football team than we are now if we just do that. But we must have the attitude that we’ll get better as a team. I want all of you to make a decision and a commitment that that’s what you want to do. We need to gut it out. We need to do it. Pull together and do what we need to do. You just need to do your job.”

David found himself leaning forward in his seat because he could already tell this rookie coach got it. He had a feeling this team would be completely different by the end of the season. They would surprise people when it all finally came together. Unfortunately, he could see the older guys were still doubtful.

“Something I see in college ball that drives me crazy is that, too often, their coaches coach every player the same. If a player doesn’t fit the system, they just don’t play them. When I coached in the NFL, we didn’t have that luxury. As a coach, you’re given a player and have to figure out how to work with him because you don’t have the depth you have in college. You have to figure out how to work with all kinds.

“While this won’t be an overnight change, I plan to get the most out of each and every one of you. We’ll develop depth at every position, and when it’s your turn to step on the field, I expect you to be ready. It will be as simple as ‘next man up.’

“With me saying that, I expect something from you as well. To be what you want as a football team, you have to show improvement each week. At USC, we’re expected to be a winning football team. Those are the expectations here, from our administration, our boosters, our students, and our fans. Even our opponents expect it. I want you to embrace those expectations. One of the reasons I came here was to win. And if we’re not improving from one week to the next, we have no chance of accomplishing our goal of winning the Pac-12 Championship.

“I might even be so bold to say, a national championship,” Coach Merritt said.

That got everyone on their feet. David could only hope.

“Over the next couple of days, your position coach will meet with you and give you your individual expectations so that you’re clear on what your job is. Now, before we go, Willy has something to say.”

Willy Powell was their starting center and would probably be one of the team captains.