Chapter 3

The night before the game, the football team was loaded onto buses and taken to a downtown hotel. The new players soon learned that room assignments depended on a combination of depth chart and seniority.

Players like Willy Powell, USC’s center and offensive captain, got a room on the top floor with the best view. Those like Nick ‘Big Cat’ Collins, a freshman, had a room on a lower floor overlooking the parking lot and on the same floor as all the coaches. David and Alex were both starters with no seniority, so they were on the top floor but overlooked the dumpsters.

After a team dinner and quick meetings, everyone was allowed to do as they pleased so long as they didn’t leave the hotel. David was called to a conference room where Coaches Merritt, Thomas, and Stackhouse wanted to go over film with him one last time.

After the film session, Coach Thomas held David back to have a word with him. When they were alone, he began, “How are you feeling?”

“Equal parts excited and scared,” David admitted.

“You might not know this, but I played quarterback when I was in college. I was a career backup until midway through my senior year, when our starter went down. I was terrified when I stepped onto the field. In my first two series, I fumbled a snap and threw an interception.”

David winced because that was his worst nightmare.

“I settled down after that,” Coach Thomas said. “We got our butts kicked, but I discovered I belonged on the field. My coach told me what my role was and to just do my job.”

“Good advice.”

“I want you to take it to heart because we’re good enough to beat UNLV without any heroics on your part. I know that you have the ability to throw a ball into a tight window and make a play, but that isn’t your job tomorrow. I would rather you dump it off, and we have to punt. The only way we lose is if we turn the ball over,” Coach Thomas said.

David wanted to argue because he was confident in his abilities, but Coach Thomas got paid to make these calls. If the coach wanted David to play it conservatively, he would.

“If I were UNLV,” Coach Thomas continued, “I’d want to force you to make bad decisions. They’ll blitz, try to trick you with disguised coverages, trash talk, and get you to doubt yourself.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what Coach Stackhouse told me.”

“Well, she’s right. Keep a clock in your head when you drop back to pass. If nothing is open, either dump it off or run the ball. They’ve never faced someone with your size and speed.”

“I can do that.”

“And if you’re going to get hit, slide. I can’t risk you getting hurt,” Coach Thomas added.

“Yes, sir.”

“You ready for this?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then get a good night’s rest. Room check will be at 10:30,” Coach Thomas said, dismissing him.

Alex had brought his game system and hooked it up to the hotel’s TV. Most of the freshmen were in his room, playing a football video game. Big Cat and Chuy were currently playing.

“I can’t believe you picked Cleveland. Have they won anything this century?” Bear asked to harass Big Cat.

“My dad was a Browns fan, so I grew up a Browns fan. Deal with it. And anyway, they’re getting better,” Big Cat said to defend his Browns.

There was an electronic sound at the door, and David walked in.

“Well, hello, boyz,” he drawled.

“We’re ordering pizza. Are you in?” Alex asked.

“I could eat,” David agreed.

“Bear’s collecting the money,” Alex told his roommate.

“You know the rest of the team will want in on this,” David said.

“They can get their own.”

“When the offensive line shows up, are you going to tell them they can’t have a slice?”

Alex knew David was right.

“What should we do?” he finally asked his roommate.

“Have these guys go door-to-door and collect money. I’ll ask one of the coaches if we can use the ballroom we had dinner in. That way, our room doesn’t get trashed and smell like pizza all night,” David suggested.

“I’ll organize this bunch while you deal with pizza and locations,” Alex said.

Alex chuckled as he walked down to Willy’s room because he’d taken the easy job. He found their center with a few other linemen in his room.

“Hey, Dawson’s organizing pizza. I need you to figure out who wants some,” Alex said and told Willy how much per head. He also explained that they had to get their own drinks.

“I like this. It’s good to see the new guys doing a bit of team-building. I’ll make a couple of calls and get you the numbers. I assume everyone will want in,” Willy said.

By the time David returned from talking to the coaches, Willy had gotten them a rough headcount. Alex was impressed when David ordered pizza from a handful of different places. He explained that he’d learned that trick from one of his personal assistants. That way, no one place was overwhelmed with orders.

A half-hour later, players began to come down to the ballroom. Alex noted that the coaching staff had joined them. The team managers took over when the pizzas started to arrive. Willy held the team off until the last batch of food was delivered.

“Before we eat, I want to thank the rookies for organizing the food. Be sure to put your money into the pitchers at the end of the table...”

Willy was interrupted by Coach Merritt.

“No need to pay. I like this idea of a late-night snack where we’re all together before a game. I’ll get the university or boosters to pick up the tab. Next game, the sophomores are responsible for organizing the food. Be sure to thank the freshmen, and let’s eat!”

Alex saw that David had paid upfront for all the pizzas and had collected all the receipts. He made a show of giving the receipts to Coach Merritt. He chuckled when Coach Stackhouse made everyone switch tables so they were eating with people they didn’t normally hang out with.

It also wasn’t lost on him that David went from table to table to talk to each of his teammates. He saw that the coaching staff also noted his roommate networking. Someday, that boy was going to run the world.

David got to experience one of the game-day traditions. When Pete Carroll was hired at USC back in the early 2000s, he started the Trojan Walk. Exactly two hours before each game, the Trojans arrived at the Coliseum on their buses. They would parade through the crowd on their way into the stadium under the Olympic torch.

It created a fan-friendly vibe that brought the players right to the forefront of the game-day experience while becoming a fixture of pregame B-roll for every USC home game. Plus, how cool was it to see kids reach out and high-five their heroes?

David was halfway to the entrance when he heard, “Daddy!” as Coby wiggled free of his grandma and ran to him. His son was all decked out in a number 11 jersey with ‘Dawson’ on the back. USC was one of a handful of schools that had never put the player’s name on their uniform, but his mom thought it was silly. His whole clan had them on.

David scooped Coby up, carried him over to where his family was, and said hello to and hugged all his kids. They wanted to tell him about tailgating. His mom had found a company that did it all for them. All his dad had to do was pull up and put cheese-filled hotdogs—ambrosia to his kids—on the grill and kick back.

After the game, the company would return and take down the tent and everything under it. They’d added a fence around the outside of the tent so the adults didn’t have to worry about the eight little ones terrorizing other tailgaters.

“Uncle David!” Greg’s three cried out to get his attention.

He gave his niece and nephews a hug.

“David, you need to get inside,” Coach Stackhouse said.

While he’d been saying hello to his family, the rest of the team had already gone in.

“Sorry, guys. They can’t start the game without me.”

After warm-ups, David went to the training room to get his ankles re-taped. They had a live feed of what was happening on the football field. The USC drum major marched out onto the field with a sword in his hand. From inside the locker room, David could hear the crowd respond as the sword was stabbed into the turf, directing the marching band to come onto the field.

Like Ohio State’s script Ohio and dotting of the ‘i,’ this tradition was one of the most recognizable in college football.

The USC marching band performed their pregame concert accompanied by the USC Song Girls. He had to leave to meet with the team, so he missed the moment when Traveler—USC’s majestic pure white horse ridden by a guy in Trojan garb—made his entrance.

Originally, Traveler would gallop around the track after touchdowns. Now, with the track removed, he trotted out to glad-hand fans along the edges of the stands.

After a quick meeting with the coaches, David finally had the opportunity to put his earbuds in, crank up some rock music, and mentally prepare for the game. It was a routine he’d started in high school that allowed him to block out the world for a time. He visualized himself and his teammates having success as he mentally ran through key offensive plays he would run.

One of his teammates tapped him on the shoulder to let him know it was time.

Coach Merritt had the whole team gathered around.

“Take a knee!”

Once everyone was settled, he began.

“Instead of a traditional motivational speech, I asked Heisman winner and All-Pro Charles White to say a few words.”

A man in his sixties came to the front of the room as the team politely clapped. David assumed that most of them, like him, had no idea who the guy was because he had to have played before David was even born.

“Wow ... uh ... What an honor to be here in front of you guys. It’s a great day today. You only get so many of these in your life. Season openers give you a chance to set the tone for the rest of the season. It also gives you a chance to finally hit someone other than your teammates,” Charles said, drawing some chuckles.

“I remember my first game over forty years ago and the pride I took when I put on my USC uniform. It was the culmination of eight years of effort, starting with playing flag football at recess in grade school all the way through high school ball. All the work once I got onto campus, and fall practice, to finally get to strap a helmet on and represent this great university.

“Today, every college football team across America is undefeated. They all have dreams of winning the national championship. But I’m here to tell you that it will be USC hoisting that trophy at the end of the season, and it starts right now.

“Let’s go out and show the country they have to go through us ... that we are the team to beat!” Charles concluded.

David saw the team was ready as they followed Charles into the tunnel. In the stadium, loud rock music blared as they made their way to the entrance. Then the piped-in music stopped, and the USC marching band began to play Fight On! It was one of the most iconic songs in college football.

When David ran onto the field, the noise of the crowd cheering washed over him. He saw the fans giving the traditional two-fingered V-for-victory sign. FOX had made this their Game Day destination, meaning they were the featured game today. That was how David came to throw up on national TV.

As he wiped off his mouth, he noticed the VR camera setup. Before leaving, Dare and Corvus had trained a couple of the team managers on how to run the equipment; it looked like they had everything under control.

The sideline reporter wanted to have a quick word with him before the kickoff. Back home, it became a running joke that if he threw up before a game, it meant they would win. He discovered that throwing up got him out of having to do the interview.

David paused a moment to take it all in. The Coliseum was one of the most recognizable stadiums in college football, and it was packed. This was what he’d wanted, to step out onto a bigger stage and see how he measured up. It was finally time to show the world what David Dawson was capable of.

UNLV won the toss and decided to go against the norm and take the ball to start the game. That turned out to be a mistake because they threw three straight incompletions before having to punt. Their punter had a leg and kicked the ball on a line drive away from USC’s return man. He was unable to catch it, so he let it roll inside their twenty-yard line.

Coach Thomas gave David the first play, a slant pass over the middle to Tyrell Mulford, their slot receiver.

David called the play and got everyone lined up with him under center.

“Seventy ... seventy. Set!”

One of the linemen jumped before the snap to move them back five yards. Coach Thomas called the same play.

“Set! Check! Check! Hike!”

Willy snapped the ball, and David dropped back. Tyrell got stoned by an outside linebacker and went to the turf. David went to his second read—his wide receiver Bill Callaway—when he saw rookie left tackle Bear Barber get beaten by UNLV’s defensive end.

David remembered what Coach Thomas had told him yesterday, so he tucked the ball and found a gap to run through. UNLV was in a press man-to-man to give the USC receivers a hard time, which meant their focus was mainly on the receivers, not the quarterback.

Once David escaped the pocket, he ran right down the center of the field. He almost laughed because it was like the UNLV defense did one of those cartoon ‘uh oh’ looks as they realized he was on the loose and sprinting downfield.

Their safety made a dive to take his legs out but bounced off David’s thigh.

That was one of Coach Farrow’s pet peeves, and the kid would have been benched if he’d been on USC’s team. Their defensive coordinator preached that if you were making a tackle, actually tackle the guy, don’t dive and hope it knocks him down.

Eighty-eight yards later, David had scored his first college touchdown.

On USC’s third possession, they were up 7–3. Coach Thomas was trying to get his playmakers involved, but they seemed to have first-game jitters. Marcus Eshete, the Pac-12’s top returning running back, had seven carries for seven yards. Amari Weeks at wide receiver had been targeted three times and dropped each pass. USC had to punt.

While on the sideline, David overheard the receivers coach getting all over Amari over the dropped passes.

Coach Thomas pulled David aside and told him about a change in the game plan.

Before they went back out, David stopped to talk to Amari.

“Hey, man, don’t worry about those drops. I know you can do this, and so do you. Just relax and shake it off.”

“Thanks, David. You’re right; I can do this. We can do this. Just give me a minute,” Amari said.