Chapter 31

The rest of the week had been a blur. All of David’s free time had been consumed by Lisa’s funeral, the extra filming sessions necessitated by Bec Carson’s guest appearance, and his preparations for the upcoming Notre Dame game. At least, that’s what he was telling himself. The result was that three women in his life were not speaking to him: Cassidy, because she somehow thought he should be at her beck and call; Tracy, since he’d bailed on filming Trojan Inquirer; and Crystal, for more personal reasons.

Of the three, Tracy was the least shy about getting her revenge. This week’s guest was Chip Wagner, the Channel 10 sports reporter who covered USC. Before they got started, he gave Tracy some grief over getting the first interview with David after the UNLV game. It had turned into a good interview as Tracy grilled him for a change.

It was the last segment where David got what he probably deserved. The two of them played clips of David making unflattering faces. The top five were the eye roll, I have a migraine, I must be constipated, my eyes might pop out of my head, and will this ever be over?. He would have to remember that the cameras were running the entire time they were on set because he’d made most of those faces at Tracy when he thought the cameras weren’t on.

The two of them pieced together clips of Chip and Tracy interviewing him, with his different faces inserted as answers. It was actually funny as hell because Tracy knew him well enough that she nailed how he felt when asked the various questions. An example was when Chip asked David how he ‘felt’ about something, which was followed by ‘the eye roll.’

But Chip and Tracy hadn’t counted on the episode turning David into a meme machine. Creative nerds—who he would track down and kill—had created memes from his different silly faces. One of them had ended up on a popular late-night talk show when the host had asked the guest how they felt about something. They’d flashed David’s eye-roll look.

So, Saturday morning before their game with Arizona State, he decided to mend fences. When he called Tracy, she informed him she was okay because the Pac-12 Network was having her and Chip on live and showing the meme segment before his game.

Cassidy had been easy because she just wanted some of his time. All he had to do was invite her to Zak Verwood’s party that night.

For Crystal, David figured he should talk to her face-to-face, so he invited her to his dorm for breakfast. He knew that his cafeteria was one of the best places to eat on campus, and Crystal loved the pick-your-own omelet where they made it to order right in front of you. She was partial to having her eggs filled with cream cheese and crab meat, accompanied by English muffins and the cafeteria’s house-made marmalade. He decided on chorizo with queso asadero and salsa.

When they sat down to eat, Crystal asked, “You’ll help me hook up with one of the porn stars tonight, won’t you?”

She wasn’t mad at him at all ... right?

David was worried as he got dressed before the game. There’d been a bad vibe all week during practice. He’d put it down to all their injuries and that they were a heavy favorite against the Arizona State Sun Devils. But today’s locker room didn’t have the usual energy or swagger they’d shown to this point.

That changed when Big Cat stepped up and showed why USC had recruited him. The Sun Devils received the opening kickoff, but their drive died, forcing them to punt. Big Cat caught it at the eighteen-yard line with room to run. ASU’s first defender zeroed in on him to try to take him down for no gain.

Big Cat picked a great time to show what he could do. ABC had picked up the telecast and made it one of their featured games of the week, so his friends and family back home in Baltimore got to see him perform.

He took a little side step, causing the ASU defender to fly by him. He then ran an ‘S’ weave through the next line of defense. The crowd erupted as he broke out into the open. The USC blockers picked up three defenders to shield them from their return man.

To that point, Big Cat had shown patience as he followed his blocks, but once he slipped through their defense, he turned on the burners and ran eighty-two yards for the first score.

After a couple of exchanged possessions, ASU got the ball back. They started to exploit the USC defense’s weaknesses. USC was down to only two safeties, and two key defensive linemen were out with injuries. ASU put together an eight-play, seventy-five-yard drive that ended in a forty-two-yard touchdown to tie the score at 7.

The entire time they had the ball, David could almost physically feel the sense of doom come over the USC sideline. Then Matt went out and got sacked, knocking him out of the game.

It was the moment of truth. Did Coach Merritt want a chance to win this game and toss David’s redshirt label, or would he go with little-used junior Jaden Ponder? The whole team was in shock when Jaden’s number was called.

Along with him, Chuy was sent in to play tailback. ASU was unsure what to do with the power running of the six-two, two-hundred-thirty-five-pound freshman. Chuy began to run the ball between the tackles and pound out three to five yards every time he did so.

But for some incomprehensible reason, John Johnson was back at left tackle. He drew penalties on back-to-back plays, killing a promising drive. First, John jumped before the snap to garner a flag for a false start, resulting in a loss of five yards. Then, on the next play, he held his defender, resulting in a loss of another ten yards.

ASU got the ball back, moved down the field on another drive, and scored, going up by 7.

USC was stymied when ASU began to bring more players into the box in the area where Chuy was running. His production dropped to one to two yards per carry.

With USC’s run game stopped and Jaden overthrowing passes, ASU scored twice before the half to go up 24–7.

David called up to the booth to talk to Coach Thomas.

“Tell Jaden to throw it to Bill and warn Bill that it’ll be overthrown. Run a jet or something like it so Bill can run under the pass.”

“That might work,” Coach Thomas decided.

On the last drive of the half, Coach Thomas did just that. Starting at their twenty, Jaden lined them up. On the snap, he dropped back. David groaned when a flag flew at John Johnson’s feet. Bill had two defenders bracketing him when Jaden released the ball. If it had been on target, it would’ve been intercepted. Knowing it would be deep, Bill put on a burst to pull it in for a thirty-yard gain.

The penalty was hands to the face on the defense, which USC declined, and the play stood.

It was now first and ten at the fifty. On the next play, Big Cat was put in at the slot. Before the snap, he went into motion. At the snap, he was behind Jaden, who did an excellent job of freezing the defense by faking a handoff to Chuy, who plowed into the line.

Jaden turned and handed Big Cat the ball. The fleet-footed slotback sprinted around the end. His defender had gotten caught up in the pileup Chuy caused, so Big Cat was ten yards down the field before ASU realized Chuy didn’t have the ball.

USC went into the half down 24–14.

When David returned to the locker room, Matt was talking to Coach Merritt.

“You need me back in there. Jaden doesn’t have what it takes, and the doctor just said I could play.”

David winced when he saw the look that came over Coach Merritt’s face. He’d pissed his coach off on more than one occasion, but not like this.

“Listen, son. There’s something you need to understand: This is a dictatorship, and I’m the dick in charge. I will decide who plays and who doesn’t, and right now, Jaden is starting the second half. I suggest you get your head right and support your teammates because I’d hate to see you riding the bench for the rest of the season,” Coach Merritt answered Matt. “Is that clear?”

“Ye-yes, sir,” Matt stammered.

“Now get out of my sight.”

After Matt left, David strolled by. Coach Merritt turned his glare on him, but David kept a straight face as he went into the central area of the locker room, where he found Matt looking confused and hurt.

“Get your head up and act like a leader,” David said as he walked by.

True to Coach’s word, Jaden started the second half, but that only lasted one series.

Matt returned with a new determination. It helped that Bear also started the second half in place of John Johnson. With Bear in the lineup, USC was playing three true freshmen, and at a school like USC, that should never happen.

During the summer, David had told all the freshmen they would probably never see the field that year, that their first year was about stacking days. That meant hitting the weight room to develop their bodies so they could play big-boy football.

But if they did play, they should try not to overdo it. It wasn’t their job to rescue the team. All they had to do was do their job, take care of what they could control, and focus on that.

What he saw on the field was that they took that lesson to heart. The one who hadn’t was Matt. David understood that there were times when the quarterback had to carry the team. If there were ever such a time, this was it because of how poorly the Trojans had played in the first half. While it was not impossible to overcome being down by two scores, the attempt would be a long slog. Matt needed to calm his team down and begin to rebuild their confidence with a long drive.

On the first play, he dropped back. It was supposed to be a drag route over the middle to the tight end, who was wide open for a six-yard gain. Instead, Matt pumped once and threw to Bill, who was double-covered. It wasn’t even a fifty-fifty ball. It would have been intercepted nine times out of ten, but Bill worked his magic and ripped the ball out of the defender’s hands for a fifteen-yard gain.

Coach Thomas stopped Matt’s hero play by running the ball, with Big Cat and Chuy featured. The drive ended up being a nine-play, eighty-seven-yard series to make the score 24–21, still in favor of ASU.

Then fortune shined on the Trojans. ASU turned the ball over on their own thirty-six-yard line.

Coach Thomas went for the kill, as he should when there was a rapid change of situation in USC’s favor. He sent Bill on a post route, and David could only shake his head when ASU somehow lost their top target. Thankfully, Matt saw him streaking through their secondary and hit Bill with a perfect pass, making the score 28–24 in favor of the good guys.

It started to look like USC was back in control of the game. That lasted until their next possession, when they went three-and-out. Their punter was supposed to kick the ball out of bounds somewhere inside the ASU twenty. The ball had other ideas as it sailed down the middle of the field to the waiting arms of the ASU return man.

USC’s kick defense had set up their coverage to cover the out-of-bounds and was caught flat-footed. The ASU return team set up a wall of defenders toward the other sideline. Ninety-two yards later, the Sun Devils were up 31–28.

That took the life out of the Trojans. The fourth quarter was a bunch of nothing until 1:23 was left, when ASU scored again.

Down 38–28, David was glad to see Coach Merritt decide not to give up and just run out the clock. It was an opportunity for USC to practice their two-minute offense. Matt took charge and began moving them down the field with pinpoint passes.

David envied him because this was one part of the game he especially loved. This was the time for Matt to be selfish and just let it rip. It took a special breed of quarterback to be successful when the defense knew he had to throw the ball. More often than not, it ended badly with an interception.

Matt got them across midfield with under a minute to go. From there, he could reach the end zone with his arm, so Coach Thomas sent everyone deep. Bill ran underneath the ASU defenders, a yard short of the end zone. Matt threw it on a rope. The ball would have ripped through the receiver’s hands if it had been Amari. Bill snatched the ball out of the air and dove for the end zone.

There was a huge pile, but the back judge signaled a touchdown.

As far as moral victories go, this was about as good as it got. But David believed that losing sucked. The final was 38–35, breaking the Trojans’ home winning streak.

This was a game USC should have never lost, and this one hurt. Instead of being 5–3 and only having to win one of their last four games to go to a bowl, they were 4–4. Their defense, which had looked to be returning to the previous year’s form, simply looked ordinary again. And while the offense showed flashes of excellence, it just couldn’t seem to maintain that level of performance.

The remaining schedule was at Oregon State, Cal at home, and then it got dicey: away at UCLA and then home against Notre Dame, which was crushing people. If the Trojans lost the next week, they could very well lose the rest.

After the game, Phil thanked his dad for allowing his and Roc’s parents to sit in their box seats. They met with Bryant Franzese, USC’s recruiting coordinator, and the rest of the recruits and their families. As they were gathering, two buses pulled up in front of the stadium.

Phil listened as Bryant regaled them with tales of USC lore until he saw his brother walking over with several football players following him.

“Hello, everyone,” David said with a big smile as he approached.

“This is David Dawson,” Bryant said, which everyone already knew, based on the chuckles when David rolled his eyes.

“Okay, fair warning. I plan to take your sons to a Hollywood party tonight at Zak Verwood’s estate, where they will meet TV and movie stars. It’s a pool party, so I hope everyone brought their swimsuits. If not, Zak will have something for you to wear,” David said.

“Will there be alcohol?” Mrs. Pearson asked.