Chapter 47

I took a long hot shower when I got back to my apartment. The heat and steam helped my head and cleaned my body but it didn't help settle my mind. For the first time I questioned if Kelly and I were going to be able to work things out. Did we have a future? It just killed me to think of us breaking up but I couldn't go on like this.

Ruefully I remembered the hell I put Zack, Anders, Evan, J. T. and my other friends had gone through last year with my drinking. It had taken me a long time to understand that I had to place limits on myself. Hell, intellectually I knew that but still I drank too much last night.

I loved Kelly so much and we were perfect together in so many ways. That had to be a way to reach her and make her understand. There had to be!

I headed down to the Mix, picked up soup and a sandwich for lunch and the Sunday newspaper. Jay and Molly came downstairs about the time I came back. They told me Trevor and Steph headed over to her apartment for brunch a little earlier. Jay and Molly were going downtown to the Penn State Diner for brunch.

I sat down and had my soup and sandwich as I began reading the paper. I started with the sports section so I could find out how my friends' teams had fared yesterday. Ed Fritz's Gators beat Mississippi State 35-9 yesterday. Ed played mop-up in the second half. Jeremy and Notre Dame took care of the upset minded Stanford Cardinal 21-17. That score was a lot closer than the Irish would have liked but they won. Jeremy was credited with nine tackles in the game.

West Virginia took care of Louisville 27-24. Drew went over a hundred yards rushing in the win. Jake's Syracuse Orangemen won their third game, beating up South Florida 17-16. South Florida was probably too cocky, given their upset of West Virginia last weekend. Jake didn't play in the game.

Two undefeated teams at the top of the BCS poll lost yesterday – Texas Tech beat Texas with a last second field goal and surprising Georgia Tech upset #7 ranked Virginia Tech 37-23. People were going to have to give the Yellowjackets some respect.

I flipped the page over to see the results for the teams local to Philadelphia. Delaware had gone up to Boston this weekend and beaten Northeastern 27-24. Andy had two catches in the game. I continued reading the article about the game. I laughed when I read the decisive play in the game. The score was tied 24-24 with a minute and a half to go. Northeastern was driving down the field for the go-ahead score.

Christian's cousin and my friend Trent Wilson intercepted a pass and ran it back to set up the winning field goal for the Blue Hens. I needed to send an e-mail off to Trent. The two of us hadn't kept in touch too well this year.

Rutgers upset the heavily favored Pitt Panthers in their home stadium yesterday. Hal Long booted a last second field goal to win the game 27-24. Hal was getting to show the rest of the world what we knew back in high school. He was a fine kicker.

I sent off congratulations to my brother and all my friends. It felt great sending victory congrats every one of my friends. It was rare that I sent that kind of e-mail to Jake Kring.

I flipped on the TV, figuring to catch a little NFL action while I finished the paper. Fox was showing Dallas against Kansas City – the insufferable versus the incompetent. No thank you. I flipped over to CBS. They were showing the Steelers against the Browns. At least I enjoyed watching the Steelers even if the Browns weren't going to provide much competition to them.

The half time report caught my attention. James Brown announced that the Green Bay Packers were leading the St. Louis Rams 14-3 at halftime. Zack had thrown for 192 yards in the first half. Maybe my mentor would finally get his first NFL win today. Phil Simms complemented Zack's play and observed that he was a very talented young man that needed a better supporting cast if he ever wanted to be a success in the NFL. I couldn't agree more. Hopefully Coach Bauder would be able to get Zack help.

Damian and Billy came back soon after halftime ended. They were delighted to see me watching Pittsburgh. Both guys were die-hard Steelers fans. They settled in on the couch to watch the second half. I continued perusing my paper at the dining room table.

Damian and Billy were in a good mood. They cuddled for awhile as they watched the game. They paid less attention to the game and more attention to each other as the game wore on. Surprisingly, I wasn't put off by the sight of two guys making out ten feet from me.

Billy yanked off Damian's shirt and was trying to thrust his tongue half way down his throat when I reached my limit. I teased, "Why don't you two get a room?"

"Capital idea!" Billy responded. "C'mon, big boy, let's test the springs on that bed of yours."

"Excellent suggestion," Damian agreed. The two lovers pranced up the stairs, hand in hand. It only took a couple minutes for the sounds of orgasmic moans and groans to filter down the steps. I didn't need to listen to that. I headed over to the Lasch Building.

I caught the rest of the Steelers game in the player's lounge. They beat the dreadful Browns 34-10. Ben Roethlisberger played brilliantly, hitting 23 of 30 passes for three touchdowns and no interceptions.

The post game show reported the final score for Green Bay/St. Louis. Zack's team beat the Rams 27-13. Phil Simms praised the improvement my mentor had shown over his first four starts. Green Bay had a brutal opening to their season: the Vikings followed by the Patriots, Giants and then the Bills. I hoped Zack's team could recover from their 1-4 start. They would play Detroit next Sunday so maybe the Packers could climb out of the hole they were in.

Dave McCall came in around a quarter to five. The two of us huddled and reviewed the plans for the Thon. I told him how I recruited the guys to solicit donations, how I ran the meetings and the system of prizes I set up to help motivate the crew.

"Does the Thon committee provide the prize money?" Dave asked.

I chuckled. "No, they don't," I explained. "You have to raise that money too."

"What?" Dave asked. "How much money did you need last year?"

"About five thousand dollars," I replied.

"Where am I supposed to get five thousand dollars?" Dave asked. My young friend was fighting rising panic.

"You're the chairman this year so I guess I can reveal where the money comes from," I said. "I'll get you Aaron Morano's phone number. Aaron contributed all the prize money last year to help us be successful. Give him a call."

"You want me to call HIM?" Dave squeaked. "He barely knows who I am. I spoke to him maybe twice that spring semester before he graduated. He's a pro-bowl cornerback. I can't just call him up and ask for five grand."

"Sure you can," I replied. "Tell Aaron I sent you to him and that you're the Thon chairman this year. He'll come up with the support you need. I guarantee it."

"I'll give it a shot if you say so, Coach," Dave agreed.

"Aaron's a soft touch," I explained. "He helped get the team started with the Thon. He'll do anything he can to support it."

"I'll give him a call," Dave agreed. "Thanks for all your advice on how to organize this. I don't think I could do this without you."

"No problem, Dave," I replied.

The player's lounge cleared out a few minutes later. All of us had to head over to the Training Table for dinner. After dinner the team headed back to the Lasch Building for our review of our performance in yesterday's game.

Needless to say it wasn't a pleasant meeting for most of the team. Coach Burton praised Damian's running as "superb" and said Chip did a brilliant job on the play action pass early in the fourth quarter. He also praised my YAC (yards after the catch) on that play. Otherwise the coaches characterized our play as sloppy and careless.

We were going to have to do much better this week in practice and next Saturday in Michigan. Coach Burton called Michigan's junior QB Nick Wilson the best we would probably see all year. Michigan was ranked #8 in this week's poll. We moved up two slots to #10 thanks to Texas and Virginia Tech's defeats. Coach Burton warned us we were going to have to play "a damn sight better if we were going to have a prayer of winning."

Tyler Madden, Jibril Sloan and Andrew Perkins called the key leaders on the team together after the coaches dismissed us. Tyler read us the riot act for not passing on his exhortations last Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to the rest of the team. We weren't a talented enough team to coast to victory against anyone. We had to work our butts off every week to be successful. We leaders needed to support our captains and get that message to the other players.

--oooOooo--

The message was well received by the rest of team. Everyone realized that the next two weeks would make or break our season. If we beat both Michigan and #6 ranked Ohio State we had a chance for a top ten finish to the season and a BCS bowl game. If we lost to both we would drop down to third or fourth in the Big Ten and would go to a minor bowl game.

The guys focused at practice during the week. Everyone worked hard to be prepared for the Wolverines. Chip, Jibril, Tanner, Christian, Damian and I spent extra time after practice drilling ourselves on the passing routes. Jay did the same thing with the second string receiving corps.

I would like to say things were better between Kelly and me but they weren't. Kelly's immediate anger with me from Sunday was gone by history class on Monday. A little tenseness remained throughout the week. My intense focus on Michigan and the amount of time each of us needed to spend studying for midterms didn't help matters.

Both Kelly and I were confident we aced our history midterm on Wednesday. Kelly wasn't as sure about her Statistics 100 midterm earlier in the morning. I had two midterms on Thursday – Anthropology 45 and Teaching Secondary Social Studies I. My mind was fried after finishing those two midterms, doing practice, spending extra time on passing with Chip and the other receivers and then my receivers' meeting Thursday night. I headed over to Kelly's apartment for a visit before bedtime.

Kelly and I walked down Bellaire Avenue to the Burger King for burgers and ice cream. The tension from earlier in the week was mostly gone. We had a pleasant forty-five minutes together. We even managed a little necking before I had to go home. Kelly promised to take good notes in history on Friday and meet me Sunday morning when our plane came in. I wished Kelly luck with her Broadcast Journalism midterm Friday morning.

--oooOooo--

This was my sixteenth away game in the last two and a half years. I'd been to every Big Ten campus except Minnesota. The travel was routine by now. The freshmen still looked at the whole thing as an adventure. I tried to make sure my charges, John Crosby and Brian Henson understood we were on a business trip not an adventure. Jared Cantrell and Squirrel MacCauley already understood.

We flew into Detroit and took the long bus ride to Ann Arbor. The athletic department put us up in the same hotel as two years ago. The coaches gave us more free time than normal on Friday. ABC picked our game as their Saturday night feature so start time was scheduled for 7:05 pm, local time. We would have most of the day to prepare for Michigan.

The weather in Ann Arbor was beautiful when we arrived. It was sunny with the temperature in the mid-sixties. The weather forecast called for similar weather tomorrow. It would be nice weather when we warmed up and would cool as the sun set and the game wore on. That suited us. Our passing game would have the right conditions to operate.

Coach Burton had a briefer than normal team meeting after dinner and then dismissed us. Chip asked Christian, Tanner, Damian, Jibril and me if we could study the game plan some more with him. We agreed.

I was pleased Chip was taking the initiative to prepare better for the game tomorrow. My friend was beginning to understand the responsibility he bore for our team. Word got around about the informal study session. Before we knew it, most of the receivers, half the running backs, Jay and all the tight ends were crowded in Chip's room reviewing tomorrow's game plan.

We worked together for about an hour and half before scattering. My usual poker buddies met in my room for our Friday evening game. No one ever won much or lost much. We just had fun together.

I went on-line before bedtime. I wanted to see how my friends at my old high school had fared tonight. Their game against Cornwall was probably their second toughest game after the one their game with Central. LancasterOnline said my high school's Wolverines had won 59-13. There was no doubt my friends back home would make the playoffs. I expected they would go deep in the playoffs, maybe even to the championship game this season. I fired off congratulatory e-mails to Matt, Dave and Cody before I went to bed.

The coaches didn't schedule Saturday's breakfast until 9:30 am, allowing us to get some extra sleep. We spent the rest of the morning in meetings preparing for the evening's game. After lunch at the hotel, our buses took us over to Michigan Stadium. Crowds of Wolverine fans were flocking there already, five and a half hours ahead of kickoff.

I assumed all the roads leading into Ann Arbor were packed the same way the roads into State College got to be on game days. It is amazing the devotion the fans show to their college teams. Every person playing the game that day was truly blessed. These fans were the ones paying for our scholarships, room and board, books, coaches, stadiums – everything associated with this game I loved.

We moved our things into the visitor's locker room and then had a chance to check out the field conditions. The field was in excellent shape, just the way I remembered from two years ago. The temperature was in the mid-sixties. It was sunny with a few clouds – all in all, a beautiful day to play football.

We went back inside and prepared. The athletic department arranged for a light snack for us around five o'clock. We headed outside for warm-ups when we were done.

As we were finishing up our warm-ups one of the Michigan players headed over to our side of the field. I recognized him immediately. I trotted towards midfield to meet him.

"Hey Terrell, how's it going?" I asked, greeting the friend I made when I visited Michigan three years ago.

"I'm good, Kyle, how about you?" Terrell Ross replied. Terrell was Michigan's top cornerback and would be covering me all day.

Fine," I allowed.

"Hey, Brad, come on over!" Terrell shouted. Big #89 trotted over to join us.

"Good to see you, Garrett," I said. Garrett Bradford was another of the recruits from my visit to Michigan. The three of us caught up with each other's lives for a few minutes. Terrell inquired about Ed Fritz. I let him know my friend was QB2 down at Florida. I asked about the fifth member of our recruit group from the weekend – William Johnson.

William was stretching at the far end of the field near the goal line. William had earned nearly as much acclaim as a starter last season as I had. He was one of the premier defensive tackles in the country. He was going to make our offensive line work hard today.

I wished each of my friends a good game, but not too good. We parted with handshakes and promises to touch base again after the game was over. I headed inside to complete preparations.

--oooOooo--

Michigan completed the renovations on their stadium last year, once again making it the largest college football stadium in the country, besting Beaver Stadium by a few hundred seats. This big showdown was sold out, all 108,000 seats filled. The highly charged, partisan crowd cheered their Wolverines as they took the field.

Andrew Perkins guessed correctly on the coin toss, earning us first possession of the game. Coach Burton and Coach Ferguson considered Michigan one of our "big" opponents, so I would be primary return man for the team. Christian and Tanner would spell me if needed.

Michigan's kicker booted the ball well, dropping it just inside the goal line. Dave McCall yelled for me to return the ball so I dashed out of the end zone following my blocking wedge. Michigan had the outside lanes covered well. I advanced up into the wedge, hoping for an opening. Tony King, at the apex, and Jeff Knox, to Tony's right, managed to pry apart the two cover guys in front of them.

I sprinted through the crack, cut hard to the right to make the next tackler miss and sprinted for the right side of the end zone. I stiff armed the kicker out of the way when he went for the tackle and sprinted down the field. The crowd quieted as I raced into the end zone, accompanied by my escorts, Dave McCall and Matt Frye. Andrew Perkins booted the PAT through the uprights. Score: 7-0 Penn State

The Wolverines weren't bothered in the least by my quick score. They methodically worked the ball down the field, mixing up the passes and runs to keep our defense off balance. Nicholas Wilson, their red-shirt sophomore quarterback, managed the drive well.

I had read a little bit about him and seen some video when we prepared for Michigan. Wilson was proving to be a good QB. Garrett Bradford had told me how much he enjoyed working with Nick and what a nice guy he was. All of us would have been classmates if I had chosen Michigan over Penn State.

As things stood, Wilson was the enemy now. Coach C and our defense worked their asses off trying to slow down their drive. Trevor, Bill Daugherty and our d-line got good pressure on the QB but couldn't get to him fast enough. They moved the ball down the field in four, five or six yard gulps.

That changed after the QB hit a sweetly run out route to put them down on our 25 yard line. Coach C blitzed Salim Rogers, our hero (strong safety). Salim stunted inside of Trevor, tying up the defensive end. Trevor stunted outside, drawing Garrett Bradford's desperation block.

Garrett's a good tight end but he had no chance against a top notch defensive end. Trevor was by Garrett in a flash and on top of Nick Wilson. Wilson tried to sprint left to get free but stopped short when he saw Bill Daugherty breaking free on that side. He dropped back and tried to sprint around Trevor. Trevor engulfed him and put him to the turf hard. Wilson managed not lose the ball, just the twelve yards on the sack.

Our defense had an easy time on second and 22 yards to go. Shawn Byrd batted the ball away from the receiver. Wilson threw the ball away on third and 22 to avoid another sack. Coach Rodriguez thought briefly about trying a 54 yard field goal but decided to try a coffin corner punt instead. Coach Ferguson elected to try to block the punt rather than go for a return.

We didn't get the block but they didn't get the corner either. The ball rolled into the end zone before it crossed the sideline. We took possession of the ball at our 20 yard line.

The first play we ran was intended to test Michigan's defensive plan. I was faking a deep route. Damian actually would get the ball on a delay draw. I lined up at split end. Terrell Ross lined up opposite me, giving me a five yard cushion. No one lined up deeper than Terrell.

"Trying the Trojans defense?" I teased across the line to Terrell.

"We'll see," Terrell replied, chuckling.

At the snap I sprinted downfield on a flag route. Terrell stayed with me for the first twenty yards before I started to pull ahead. The free safety rotated over to help cover Christian. Now we knew that Michigan was going to try to use the defense the Trojans beat us with earlier this fall.

Coach Burton acted immediately. The next play would test exactly how good Terrell Ross was at covering me one on one.

I sprinted downfield fifteen yards and faked like the route was a hitch. Chip pump faked as I made my move. Terrell bit on the fake. I sprinted down field ten yards deeper, Terrell desperately backpedalled to keep with me. Chip flung the ball my way, a split second before William Johnson, their big defensive tackle hit him.

The ball was thrown short, so I had to come back for the catch. It gave Terrell a play on the ball. I got position on Terrell and blocked him away from the ball with my body. I caught it. Terrell took me down immediately. We gained 45 yards on the play to put us on Michigan's 35 yard line.

We tried an off-tackle run away from William's side of the line. William ran it down from the back and dropped Damian for a loss. We tried a tailback screen on next play but Michigan had a linebacker in position to tackle Damian. Damian dropped the ball on purpose to avoid another loss in yards.

We didn't try to go deep on third and twelve. I ran an in route on the play. Michigan switched to a 5 short, 2 deep zone coverage. I ran in behind the short coverage and in front of the deep men, aiming to find a seam. Chip saw me and drilled the ball into me when I came open.

I secured the ball, turned and tried to get more yards. I knew I was a little short of the down marker. The two safeties covering deep flew up and nailed me before I could get past the down marker. The play was officially scored as a nine yard catch. We were too far away to try a field goal, so Coach Burton sent Mitch Jackson out to try a coffin corner punt. Mitch pooched the ball perfectly, sending it out of bounds at Michigan's 7 yard line.

Nick Wilson and the Wolverine offense came at us hard again. They moved the ball well down the field on our defense. Coach C adjusted and blitzed to try to bring the drive to a stop, finally turning them away when they approached our red zone. Our defense stopped them with a sack, a batted down pass and a near interception. Michigan tried a 49 yard field goal but missed slightly wide to the right.

The offense took the field again. Michigan continued to single cover me with Terrell while doubling Christian and Tanner. We moved the ball smartly with a mix of Damian's running and short passing. I caught a couple more short passes underneath of Terrell. Our momentum slowed as we approached Michigan's red zone again.

The Wolverines intensity picked up as they fought more aggressively to stop us. They changed pass coverage to double cover me instead of Tanner. Greg Nowicki and Mahmoud Greene had their hands full trying to contain William Johnson and keep him off Chip. William was nearly certain to be named all-American at defensive tackle.

It was obvious to me what Michigan's defensive game plan was. They would play bend but don't break on most of the field and then get aggressive when we got closer to scoring. They would patiently wait for our offense to make the kind of mistakes we had made game after game this season. It wasn't a bad plan.

The ball was on Michigan's 30 yard line with our most recent first down. The Wolverines stopped Damian's off tackle run (away from William) with a two yard gain. Chip hit Tanner Riggs going across the middle for another five yard gain. The middle linebacker and strong safety sandwiched Tanner when they tackled him. He came up slow and wobbly. The training staff helped him off the field.

Max Rosen took Tanner's slot receiver spot. We tried a play action pass on third down and three to go. Max and I would work ourselves between the linebackers and the deep coverage. It didn't work. William Johnson blew through the gap between Greg Nowicki and Mahmoud Greene, leaped over Damian's desperation block and chased down Chip. William dropped Chip for a twelve yard loss.

We were back at Michigan's 37 yard line. I was surprised when Coach Burton sent out our field goal team instead of our punt team. That was a gutsy call. Andrew Perkins delivered on Coach's faith. He booted the 52 yard kick with all his leg had. Still it looked like it would be short. Our sideline let out a loud cheer when the sinking ball barely cleared the cross bars before dropping to the ground. That was the longest field goal of Andrew's career. Score: 10-0 Penn State.

Each team was able to move the ball well to start with as the first half continued. Each drive sputtered out when the field shortened, the defenders bunched closer together and the defensive turned up the heat. The scoring stalemate remained until late in the second quarter.

Michigan had the ball down to our 17 yard line. We successfully defended first and ten and second and ten passes. Michigan flooded the end zone on third and ten. Our coverage looked excellent to me as I watched.

Nick Wilson shocked us when he rifled the ball between Tyler Madden and Denzel Hunt's double coverage on a receiver. I have no idea how Nick got the ball through in that tight space but the receiver held the ball aloft anyway as the refs signaled touchdown. The big partisan crowd cheered wildly at the incredible play. Score: 10-7 Penn State.

We found out how Tanner Riggs was doing when we got inside at half time. The doctor suspected broken ribs. He was going for x-rays and would be out for the second half. Max Rosen and Brian Henson would take his spot in the second half.

The coaches counseled us to be patient. We had done well so far. We had two penalties and no turnovers so far. If we stuck to our game plan we would leave the Big House as winners.

Michigan took the second half kickoff and drove down field on us, similar to the first half. Things went wrong as they crossed midfield. Nick Wilson threw a medium pass to one of his receivers about fifteen yards down field. The ball got batted up in the air as Denzel Hunt struggled with the receiver for the ball. Tyler Madden alertly dove for the ball, catching it before it touched the ground. He hopped up and tried to thread his way through Michigan's pursuit. He gained six yards before he was tackled at our 43 yard line.

Coach Burton decided it was time to unveil one of the wildcat plays we had been saving all year. We ran three more conventional wildcat plays in the first half where I took the snap and had the option run or pass. I gained twenty-seven yards on those three wildcat plays. This time the formation looked exactly the same as the previous three plays but our intent was totally different.

Brian Henson was playing slot on the play, Jared Cantrell was split out in my normal spot. Christian lined up as our flanker. I signaled for the snap but the ball went back to Chip instead. Our other three receivers took off on deep routes down the field. I made a chip block at William Johnson as he pushed up the field after Chip and the ball. My chip block was ineffectual and I fell down. Chip rolled away from William's pressure. I hopped back up and paralleled Chip on the Michigan side of the line.

All the defensive backs had followed Jared, Brian and Christian down field. Michigan's middle linebacker tried to cover me, to little effect. Chip zipped the ball to me as I cleared the MLB and just before big William crunched Chip to the ground.

I sprinted down the field, trying to work off Jared's, Brian's and Christian's blocks. I wasn't touched until the free safety made a lunge for me at their 5 yard line. I dragged him with me as I fell into the end zone. Touchdown Penn State! The few thousand Penn Staters in that end of the stadium let out cheers as I tossed the ball to the referee. Jared, Brian, Christian and Chip mobbed me to celebrate our score. Andrew Perkins made the PAT as always. Score: 17-7, Penn State.

The stunned Wolverine crowd was nearly silent as Michigan took Andrew's kickoff and started their next drive. This was not how they had planned their homecoming weekend. Nick Wilson drove his team down the field smartly, as happened in the first half. Coach C turned up the heat on the QB as they approached our red zone. On second and short our coach decided to blitz what we were sure would be a pass.

We blitzed our strong side linebacker Brendan Hayden on the play. It was a pass – unfortunately for us a tight end screen pass. Nick tossed the screen pass over the Trevor and Brendan's heads to Garrett Bradford. With our linebacker on that side gone, and Garrett having three linemen as blockers, we were in big trouble. The linemen engaged Denzel, Salim and G. J. DeLuca as they tried to reach Garrett. Garrett sprinted down the field, breaking Tyler Madden's tackle attempt and driving into the end zone.

Michigan made the PAT to narrow our lead to 17-14. We maintained our precarious lead through the rest of the third quarter. Each team had two more possessions that did not yield points. On Michigan's second drive we stopped Michigan with yet another sack, this time Bill and Trevor shared credit as they took down Nick Wilson.

We were a minute into the fourth quarter when Michigan punted the ball back to me. I managed a 17 yard return before Michigan's cover team tackled me. We started at our 22 yard line. Damian ran right off tackle for four yards on the first play. Coach Burton called for medium depth routes on the next play. Christian and I ran out routes while Brian went over the middle. Michigan double covered me and Christian, leaving Brian with single coverage. He couldn't get clear of the DB. Chip checked down to Christian who wasn't open and then to me. Terrell and the free safety had me covered inside and out. The pass rush was closing in so Chip retreated a couple steps and heaved the ball.