Chapter 28

I borrowed our tapes of the Tulpehoken Raiders and watched them again on Saturday afternoon. The Raiders had three losing seasons previous to starting out 0-1 this year. Their passing game looked very simplistic. I couldn't be sure after Friday night, but they didn't look like they should challenge us.

Zack Hayes called me on Sunday afternoon. As soon as I answered Zack asked, "What the hell happened? How could you guys lose to LS?"

"A lot of little things – too many penalties, inexperienced linebackers and LS has a new coach." I went on to explain the details of Friday night's loss.

Zack said, "I'm happy to see you played well, Kyle."

"It wasn't well enough," I countered. "We lost."

"What? You scored three touchdowns and had like 9 or 10 receptions for 130 some yards. That is going to open some eyes around the country."

I answered, "9 for 137 yards."

"You haven't made a commitment to USC have you?"

"No, but it's the best offer I have. I can see myself accepting Coach Carroll's offer."

Zack asked, "What do you need to come up here to State College?"

"A scholarship offer would be a start. I'm not going to be a walk-on. I know that."

"Keep playing the way you did Friday night. Scholarship offers will take care of themselves."

"I guess," I said unsurely.

"Would you really go across the country to play at USC?"

"I think so. I really like their quarterback. He's a really nice guy. We hit it off. He's a good QB too."

"Everyone says that about Jared Dillard. He's a senior. You wouldn't be playing with him."

"I know that. I was talking about his back up, Brady Rasmussen. Brady is a sophomore like you."

"Would you like to play with me again?" Zack asked, not sounding like his usual confident self.

"Of course I'd like to play with you again," I answered.

"Good. You should come to Penn State, Kyle. You and I know each other already. You go anywhere else; you'll need time to get to know the QB. If you come to Penn State, you'll be a step or two ahead of the other freshman. I know you already. I know I can count on you when I put the ball up. That trust takes time to develop."

"I know it does," I finally got around to Zack's game. "I watched you on ESPN2 yesterday while I was getting ready for my date."

"Did you? It wasn't anything. Phil piled on the points in the first three quarters. Cincinnati didn't have a chance."

I asked, "You guys are 3-0 right?"

"Yes. We have a tough game next week. We have our first Big Ten game and it's against Ohio State at their stadium."

"Good luck with that," I said. We finished the phone call with that.

--oooOooo--

Coach Caffrey didn't get mad at our team for losing the first game the way I expected. He and the other coaches were completely businesslike during practice after school every day. Coach Fisher drilled the offensive lineman to help eliminate their mistakes. Coach Wyndham helped Jeremy work with Jim and Kenny to improve their play at linebacker.

Our first Venturer Crew meeting of the year was that week. We elected Mark Good to be president for the year. All my friends my age were too busy running something else, or had already been crew president. It was time for the younger people in the crew to run things. We also began planning for our fall trip; a bike trip along the C&O Canal in Maryland the second weekend in October.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the first team offense practiced against the second team defense and the first team defense practiced against the second team offense. Thursday Coach Caffrey had the first teams scrimmage against each other. Ed threw all our misdirection plays at Jeremy's defense. The defense held their own against us; no more people out of position on each play. Our defensive line stunted and blitzed the offense. Our offensive line kept their cool and handled it all. We looked a thousand times better than the previous week.

Thursday evening Coach Carroll from USC called me to see how things were going. He knew about my stats against LS. He asked me for my analysis of what went wrong in the game against LS. He told me about USC's first two games, both big wins against weak Pac-10 teams. Coach Carroll concluded the call by telling me to keep up the good work.

Our fans nearly filled our stadium on Friday night. Tulpehoken would have done better to have stayed home. The video accurately reflected their capabilities. Our team won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball.

The cornerback who covered me just stared at the crowd as we waited for the snap on the first play. Our crowd intimidated him. He proved to be too slow and too inexperienced to cover me. Ed pretty much had his choice of open receivers to throw to on every play.

The defense was respectable against our first few running plays. We chose to continue passing. Ed threw three touchdowns to me in the first half. Drew ran for another.

Our defense had to work harder. The Raiders had a decent running game. Jim and Kenny did better at playing their assignments but still missed more tackles than we would have liked. The Raiders scored on us twice in the first half.

The coaches worked with our linebackers during halftime. They did better in the second half. We shut down their running game to start the second half. They punted the ball back to us. Andy broke through their coverage and scored a touchdown. Our defense stopped the Raiders in four plays. I caught a deep pass and ran the ball in for my fourth touchdown of the evening on the next play. Drew caught another touchdown before Coach Caffrey mercifully pulled our offensive starters.

Coach Caffrey substituted our second string defensive line and put Corey Brown in at middle linebacker in Jeremy's place. We kept Jim, Kenny and our secondary in to give them more experience. Seth Vogel took over calling defenses from Jeremy.

We teed off on their quarterback now that we had a 42-14 lead. The lineman harassed their quarterback. Our secondary did a great job. Mike 'Tex' Johansen was excellent. He picked off two interceptions in the second half. The receiver he covered never touched the ball all game.

Jake Kring threw Andy another touchdown when he came in as our third receiver late in the third quarter. We only have four wide receivers on the roster along with two tight ends. Marcus Shaeffer bulled the ball ahead to run the clock out in the fourth quarter. Hal kicked field goals both times when we ran out of field. The final score was 48-17.

The win was a relief but wasn't particularly satisfying. The Raiders weren't good enough to take great pride in the final score. Our offensive line played better but still had three off-sides penalties in the game. Our outside linebackers played better too. The game looked good on paper. We still had a lot of work to do before we played Central or any of the elite teams we hoped to see in the playoffs.

--oooOooo--

Penn State pulled off a surprise 34-21 victory over Ohio State on Saturday evening. Zack Hayes didn't play. Phil DiStefano carried the load the entire game. Penn State started the season ranked at number 12 in the country. Their first three victories moved them up to 9th. Penn State had moved up to 5th on Sunday when the polls were released.

Drew McCormick made an official visit to West Virginia the day after we pounded the Raiders. He returned to school on Monday all psyched up. The coaches wowed him. They offered him a scholarship. Drew's dad wouldn't let him accept yet. He wanted Drew to see more colleges before he made a decision.

Coach Caffrey warned me that he was getting a lot of inquiries from major colleges about me. I mentally prepared myself for more phone calls if I could keep up the way I started in the first two games.

Penny and I spent most of our evenings together studying. Sometimes we were at my house, sometimes we were at her house. The time after school before dinner was for football. Friday nights were football nights. Saturday nights was time for the two of us to be together. I never insisted we meet with the football team the way I had in tenth grade. Penny usually wanted to meet up with them anyway. All our closest friends were there now.

Our parents moved our curfew back to midnight. Most Saturday evenings we found somewhere with privacy after the movie to share our bodies with each other. Andy and Crystal spent as much time together as they could too. Liz managed about a date every other weekend; sometimes with Cody Stevens, sometimes with other eighth graders.

Week 3's game was in southern Lancaster County at the Drumore Tiger's field. I was looking forward to seeing Dustin Carter again. We had kept in touch since camp ended. I knew he was starting at cornerback. His coach was impressed with how much he improved since he played JV last year.

Our team practiced hard during the week even though we had blown out the Tigers last season 59-7. We scrimmaged again on Thursday afternoon. 'Tex' Johansen actually managed to knock down a couple passes intended for me. The offensive line went the whole scrimmage without a penalty. My team was confident when we headed south for our game on Friday night.

Ed, Andy and I met Dustin during warm ups before the game started and talked for a few minutes. We wished him luck when we went back to the locker room. Dustin needed luck that night.

Drumore won the coin toss. They actually managed to score first, a field goal. We answered their drive with our first touchdown, a long pass that Dustin couldn't stop me from catching. I scored another, Andy scored two and Drew ran for one and caught a second touchdown before the half was over. We led 42-10 at half time. Coach Caffrey pulled the first string in the second half. We were content to run the time off the clock in the second half. Andy scored another touchdown on a punt return in the second half. The final score for the game was 49-17.

I felt bad for Dustin. He was going to have a long season. He played well against Jason Harting. His coverage skills were good as long as he could keep up with the receiver. Ed and I told him to keep working at football after the game was over. We promised to keep in touch until next summer when we all planned to work at scout camp again.

--oooOooo--

I wondered how many games it would take for college coaches to realize that my knee was healed. I found out the answer was three games. I had two phone messages when I got home from scouts on Monday night. The first was from Coach Burton, the offensive coordinator at Penn State. The second was from Randy Shannon, head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. It was too late to call that night so I figured I'd call back on Tuesday after dinner. I was relieved to finally know that other schools wanted me too.

Tuesday evening I called Coach Shannon first. We talked for a few minutes. I thanked him for calling but indicated that I wasn't interested in playing for the Hurricanes. I was nervous as I placed the second call. I definitely was interested in playing for the Nittany Lions.

I dialed the number Coach Burton left. A lady answered the phone. I asked, "This is Kyle Martin calling. Could I speak with Coach Burton please?"

"I'll get Bob for you," the lady replied. I supposed she was Coach Burton's wife.

"Hello, Kyle! Good evening. How are you doing?" Coach Burton said when he got on the phone.

"I'm fine, sir."

"Good. I'm glad you called. I've been looking forward to talking with you since our discussion in June. Are you interested in playing for Penn State?" Coach Burton asked.

"You aren't talking preferred walk-on again, are you?"

Coach Burton laughed. "No. I'd like to invite you and your parents to come up to State College for an official visit. The coaching staff is satisfied that you are fully recovered from your knee injury. Coach Paterno and I would like to tell you more about our program, our emphasis on academics, and plans for the future. It's a future that I think you should be a part of."

"Are you offering me a scholarship?"

"That is the direction we are headed. I want you and your parents to understand the Penn State program. I want this to be a good fit for you and a good fit for us. Would you be able to visit on October 25th and 26th?" Coach Burton asked.

"I think so. My dad and I are keeping our weekends free this fall while I make my decision about what college I want to attend. I'll check with my dad and have him confirm it with you."

"That would be fine, Kyle. We have a few other recruits visiting that weekend. We plan to take you to our game on Saturday afternoon. After dinner you will meet with the coaching staff and the some of the team. You and your dad can find out what Penn State has to offer a prospective student/athlete. How does that sound?"

"It sounds good, Coach. I'm looking forward to it," I replied. "Coach, could I ask you a personal question?"

"That depends, what is it?"

"Was that your wife who answered the phone when I called?"

Coach Burton laughed. "I'm still at the office. That was Becky. She's one of the grad students who help out around the office in the evenings. It's only 7:00 o'clock. I'll be at the office for a couple more hours this evening before I go home."

"I didn't realize you spent that much time at work. How do you do it?"

"I love football, Kyle. I also have a very understanding wife at home."

"Thanks for asking me to visit," I said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"I'm looking forward to hearing from your dad. Thanks for calling, Kyle."

I forgot to ask Coach Burton one thing. Who was Penn State playing? I checked on line. Of course, it was USC. Jared Dillard had told me about this game. I was going to watch two of the teams recruiting me play each other. That was going to be interesting. Dad confirmed the visit to Penn State. It was set for October 25th and 26th.

I received one more call from a coach that week. I was in my room studying with Penny when Mom called upstairs and said there was a Coach Miles on the phone. I picked up and said, "Hello?"

"Kyle? This is Les Miles, head coach at the Louisiana State University. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

"Sure."

"I'm recruiting one of your teammates, Ed Fritz. Your high school coach sent me tapes of your first three games. I watched them. Ed is an outstanding quarterback."

"Yes he is. I have to tell you though, I'm prejudiced. Ed's my best friend."

"Is he? That's nice. It helps explain some of the chemistry between the two of you. I was very impressed by your play when I watched the tapes. That's why I'm calling. The recruiting services have you underrated. You're one of the best receivers I've seen this fall."

"Thank you, sir."

"Ed and his family are coming down in a couple weeks to visit our campus. I'd like to invite you and your family to come along with them. Would you be interested in coming?"

"Possibly. Could I talk with my Dad and get back to you?" I asked.

"Certainly. That would be fine. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Kyle."

"It's no problem. I was just studying with my girlfriend."

Coach Miles chuckled. "I remember seventeen. I never could get much studying done when I was with my girlfriend."

"We're well behaved, mostly. We've been studying together for a year. It helps us. Both of us are getting straight A's since we started."

"That's impressive. Thanks again for talking with me, Kyle. I hope to hear back from you. Good evening." Coach Miles said. He hung up the phone.

Louisiana State University? I certainly hadn't thought about going there before. Penny and I checked them out on the web. I was impressed with the information I found. The Tigers liked to use multiple offensive sets. They have a good running game. They ran about 55% of the time. That's pretty well balanced. Their offense is very explosive. They could be a good fit for me.

I told Dad about the call. He called Coach Miles back and arranged for the two of us to fly down to Baton Rouge on October 11-12th. Ed was delighted to hear I was going with him to LSU when he came over to train that evening.

--oooOooo--

Friday's game was against Eastern High School. Last year their defense had managed to slow us down during the game. They lost too many defensive starters since last year. Add that to the fact that we played the game at our stadium and Eastern had no chance that night. Drew ran for 127 yards in the first half. I scored two touchdowns to go with Drew's two. Andy scored another. Coach Caffrey benched the starters, except the offensive line, at half time. Jake Kring went to work in the second half. Marcus Shaeffer, Cameron Ellis and Ian Myers carried ball in the second half and piled up over two hundred yards rushing. The final score was 52-10.

After the game I wondered how a team could keep playing football when their efforts were so obviously futile. This was Eastern's sixth year with a football program. They had only won seven games total in that time. The only explanation I could find for such a record of failure was poor leadership.

The Wolverines were lucky to have Coach Caffrey. Eastern adjoins our school district. If I lived a few miles to the northeast, I would have attended their high school. I wouldn't have been fielding athletic scholarship offers if I lived there. I probably wouldn't even have played football if I'd had to put up with a record like theirs.

College football featured two premium games that Saturday afternoon. #3 USC was playing #7 Notre Dame on ABC at the same time #5 Penn State played #4 Wisconsin on NBC. I flipped back and forth between the two channels, trying to catch as much of both games as I could. USC bested Notre Dame 31-27 with a come-from-behind fourth quarter drive led by Jared Dillard.

Phil DiStefano turned what was supposed to be a close game against Wisconsin into a rout. Coach Paterno pulled Phil when the score reached 31-3 in the third quarter. Zack Hayes took over the offense. Penn State tried pounding the ball at Wisconsin, but couldn't move their big defensive line. Zack ended up using short passes to keep clock eating drives going. Zack and the offense scored another 10 points to bring the final score to 41-10.

#1 Florida lost unexpectedly to #24 Auburn that day. When the polls came out on Monday Michigan moved up to the top spot, followed by USC and then Penn State. LSU climbed to #5 in the polls.

Jeremy North did his official visit to Penn State that weekend. Jeremy was leaning towards Notre Dame, but revised his thinking after meeting Coach Paterno and the Nittany Lion linebackers. He switched from "leaning towards Notre Dame" to "undecided".

We prepared for the Sadsbury Chiefs the next week. We had beaten them handily the past three years. They were breaking in a sophomore at quarterback. I expected our secondary would be able to take advantage of his inexperience.

The game was an away game. We won the coin toss. I caught a touchdown on the eighth play in spite of a false start penalty and a holding penalty on the drive. The Chiefs had carefully studied how LS beat us. They ran wide, trying to take advantage of Kenny's and Jim's inexperience. They managed to drive down the field far enough to score a field goal.

We made too many mistakes in the first half, usually penalties. We still managed to score a second touchdown in the half. The Chiefs managed to score a touchdown too. We went into the locker room ahead 14-10. The coaches reviewed what they wanted with the offensive line and linebackers during half time.

Jeremy, Austin Herr and Travis Hall fired up the rest of the defense. Austin and Travis were defensive ends and seniors like Jeremy, Ed and me. We took the field expecting to improve our poor first half performance.

We shut down the Chiefs in the second half. Jamaal Green and Adam Diem managed to calm down Dan, Adam Bell and Brian on the offensive line. Our offense finally ran like designed. I scored two more touchdowns to go with Andy's two. We ended up winning 42-10.

Hal was excited when the game was over. He and his parents were heading to the University of Maryland to visit. This would be the first of his two college visits.

Sunday morning I checked the newspaper. Penn State, USC and LSU all won their games the previous day. Penn State played Indiana. They absolutely destroyed them. Phil DiStefano only played one half. Zack Hayes filled his spot in the second half. One of the sports columnists speculated on how the USC vs. Penn State showdown in three weeks would go. He also projected that the Michigan/Penn State game on November 8th would determine the Big 10 leader and possibly the #1 ranking in the nation if Penn State could beat USC.

I received another phone call from a coach after church on Sunday afternoon. Coach Lloyd Carr of the Michigan Wolverines called to invite me to visit the University of Michigan. I called Dad over to the phone. We quickly agreed to visit on November 8th and 9th. Dad and I high fived after I hung up the phone. We would have seats at two of the biggest college games of the year!

I really was interested in Michigan. It was on my short list of schools I hoped would recruit me. I had paid attention to Chad Henne's four years at Michigan. They had a good program. They also had some excellent wide receivers play there and then move onto the NFL. I could see myself going to college there. Getting to see Michigan vs. Penn State was simply icing on the cake.

I told Ed my news when he came over Sunday evening to train. It turned out he was already scheduled to visit the same weekend. We were going to do two official visits together. That was totally cool!

Our game six was against the Braves. The Braves usually played us tough. I considered them to be the third best team in our league after Central and us. We would lose if we screwed around and made dumb penalties like we had done a couple Friday nights this season.

Mom made me pack my luggage for my trip to Louisiana on Thursday night. Dad and I wouldn't have time to do it after the game on Friday night. We were going straight to bed when the game was over. We needed to get up and head to the airport in the middle of the night in order to catch our 6:10 am flight. Dad agreed to drive the Fritzes too.

The whole community was bonkers for our team. We were expected to keep blowing out teams the way we had the past for weeks. They just didn't know how much work we really needed to be a complete team. We kept working to fix our weaknesses.

The game against the Braves was at our Harrison Field. The stadium was nearly filled when we came out for introductions. The Braves won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball first.

The Braves followed the same game plan every team used against us since LS beat us the first week; lots of outside running with a few play action passes when our secondary edged closer to the line of scrimmage to help stop the run.

The Braves kept us off balance during the whole first drive. They needed ten plays to do it, but they managed to move the ball down the field and score a touchdown on us. We answered with a sustained drive of our own. On the sixth play, Ed was to throw a 15 yard timing pass to me. I turned to catch the ball and the cornerback collided with me, knocking both of us over. The free safety bounded over us and intercepted the ball. He sprinted downfield along the sideline. Ed had a bad angle and couldn't catch him. Normally Drew would have run him down but Drew was out in the flat on the other side of the field. The free safety carried the ball into the end zone for another touchdown.

I looked around for a yellow penalty flag, but there wasn't one. I pleaded with the referee for pass interference. He said that the cornerback and I had gotten tangled up with each other and it was incidental contact. No penalty. I kept my mouth shut, but it was a bad call!

Our team finally settled down. Ed drove us down the field with a mix of runs and quick passes. Ed hit me in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown on the ninth play of the drive. Jeremy lectured Jim Griffin and Kenny Weaver about the importance of staying in their positions. They finally started to listen.

Jeremy's crew turned back the Braves after seven plays. Andy got a good punt return. We managed to sustain our drive until we reached the Brave's red zone (inside their twenty yard line). They held us on three consecutive plays. We settled for Hal kicking a field goal. We went into the locker room at half time down 17-10 to the Braves.

We accepted the kickoff to start the second half. We used three runs and a couple quick passes to draw the defense in closer to the line of scrimmage. We called a deep route for both Andy and me on the sixth play. It would have worked too, except Brian missed his block. The Braves had a stunt going. The defensive tackle stunted outside. Jamaal (right tackle) picked him up the way he was supposed to. The defensive end swing inside. Brian (right guard) should have picked him up. Instead Brian helped Adam (center) block the middle linebacker. The end blew through our line and caught Ed before he could take two steps away from the line. He went for the ball instead of tackling Ed, knocking the ball loose.

The Braves blitzed their strong safety too. Drew tried to pick up the safety but couldn't make the block in time. The strong safety scooped the ball off the ground and headed for our end zone. Jamaal valiantly lumbered after the safety, but had no chance to catch him before he scored a touchdown. The Braves' successful PAT brought the score to 24-10 their favor.

We managed to drive down the field and kick a field goal on the next drive. Jeremy kept Jim and Kenny focused on their assignments. We finally stopped the Braves. They punted back to Andy.

They shut our next drive down after six plays. We traded punts through the remainder of the third quarter. The Braves felt pretty comfortable with their 11 point lead as they punted the ball to us.

Coach Caffrey called the offense over before we took the field at the beginning of the fourth quarter. He reminded us to calm down. Now was the time we demonstrate our team's character. We took the field enthusiastically.

We ran our up-tempo offense. It put the Braves off balance. They played a prevent pass defense to try to slow our offense down. We pushed down the field in 12-15 yard gulps. Their defense tightened up as we approached their goal line.

Pete and I ran pass routes that crossed each other. Pete ran for the corner of the end zone from his position at the end of the offensive line. I ran from my wide out spot across the back of the end zone towards the goal post. Andy drew the attention of two d-backs on the opposite side of the end zone. The coaches expected that the defensive backs would have trouble keeping track of either Pete or me as we crossed our pass routes.

The play didn't work was well as we planned. The backs didn't follow us the way we expected. They fell back to particular spots in the end zone and waited for us. Neither of us was open the way we expected. The Braves pass rush put heat on Ed, so he rolled out to his right. I paralleled Ed's move along the back of the end zone. The back didn't follow me. I realized the Braves were using zone coverage. I stopped half way to the corner, turned and waved for the ball. I should be on the seam of the coverage. Ed fired the ball into my chest. The crowd roared their approval at our touchdown. Hal booted the point after to bring the score to 24-20 Brave's favor.

8½ minutes remained in the game. The Braves took the kick off and started down the field. Our defense busted their tails trying to slow the Brave's drive, but they were getting tired. They had been on the field too long. The Braves took four minutes to drive down the field and stuff the ball into our end zone. Score: 31-20 Braves

We took the field down 11 points with four minutes to play. We used our up-tempo offense again to drive down the field. Six passes and one run moved us from our 23 yard line down to the Brave's 11 yard line. Ed launched a ball to the corner of the end zone for me. I attracted three defenders. I leapt as high as possible and managed to grab the ball. I took a couple elbows to the ribs as I landed but I kept my hands on the ball. The crowd screamed in relief. Hal kicked the PAT successfully. Score: 31-27 Braves.

Coach Caffrey had the 'hands team' line up for the obvious on-sides kick off. We had practiced this every week since we tried it in our first game. We added Jeremy, Dylan and Jim Griffin to the kick off team. Their job was to get downfield ahead of the ball to block the Braves out of the way. Andy, Drew and I were designated to grab the ball as soon as it had traveled ten yards and was "live" for us.

The kick went exactly as we practiced it. Jeremy and his blockers knocked the Brave's defenders out of our way. Drew reached the ball first. He couldn't handle it so he tipped it to me. I dropped on it, covering it with my body just as two Braves collided with me. I kept possession of the ball.

We had 1:32 left to score a touchdown for the win. The Braves surprised us by blitzing instead of playing prevent defense. Ed coolly dumped the ball off to Pete who had run a short pass route. Pete carried the ball ten yards downfield and ran out of bounds.