CHAPTER 110

I arrived at our practice facility around seven thirty in the morning, the fans were already lining up to get in. I parked in the player's lot, making my way into the locker room area. Several players were already getting ready, some familiar faces, some new. I found my locker, and began to dress, keeping to myself. I looked over at the names on some of the lockers, I noticed the rookie from Ohio, Scott Johnson, had been issued the locker right next to mine. Since it was the first day of camp, we were working out in just practice jerseys and shorts. I was just about finished when the rookie arrived next to me.

"Hey, how's it going ?", he said, nodding to me.

"Real well, thanks. I'm Brian Stevens, nice to meet you.", I said, extending my hand.

"Scott Johnson.", he said, firmly shaking my hand.

Part of the scouting report on him had been correct, he was small, very small by our standards. He was maybe five foot ten inches tall, about one hundred seventy five pounds. You could tell he spent a lot of time in the weight room, his body was a mass of sculpted muscle. He dressed quietly next to me, not saying a word. I finished adjusting my helmet, and I got up to head out to the field.

"Hey Stevens, what was it like for you last year, you know, being a rookie ?", he asked, nervously.

"It was up and down, but mostly good. Just keep your mouth shut and listen. No one cares how good you were in college, that's over, this is a whole new level. The veterans will fuck with you, take it, but stand your ground. Don't let anyone push you around, show them respect but draw a line.", I offered.

Just about that time Josh came from around the corner of the lockers, extending his hand to mine.

"Hey man, good to see you.", he smiled, shaking my hand.

I introduced him to Scott , they shook hands quickly, the rookie obviously nervous to be in Josh's presence.

"Scott, one more thing before we go out there.", I offered.

"What's that ?", he replied.

"See this guy here ?", I said putting my hand on Josh's shoulder, "You work with him, do what he says. Trust me, it will pay off.",

"Thanks man.", he responded.

We hit the field right on time, practice started at nine sharp. After warmups and a few drills, everyone split into position groups, meeting with their coordinators and position coaches. An hour into practice we were already being thrown into pass packages, terminology and situations being explained in detail. Two things were obvious, only a handful of us had done any serious homework on the new playbook. Secondly, our new offensive guru, Chase Cullen, was a dynamic no nonsense coach. He wasted no time in verbally assaulting the veterans who had obviously barely cracked a book.

We ran patterns for about an hour to end the first day of practice, Josh was picture perfect already, much to the crowd's approval. With maybe twenty minutes left in practice, Scott Douglas, the rookie was sent to work with the receivers lining up in the slot on several packages. One thing was for sure, this kid had wheels on him. We hadn't run any timed dashes yet, but he was in my mind, as fast as anyone on this time. On one particular swing pass out of the backfield, Josh arched a pass that was several yards ahead of Scott. The rookie simply shifted gears, accelerating with amazing speed running the ball down making the catch. I happened to be looking at Coach Cullen at the time and although he tried not to be impressed, you could tell he was pleased.

"Hey Henson, in case you missed it, that's Douglas the rookie, not Stevens you just threw to.", Cullen quipped to his starting quarterback.

Everyone roared in laughter, it was not meant as a criticism of Josh, it was more of a compliment to the effort the rookie was giving. Practice finished up, most of the players began to move to the fences to greet the fans who had sat watching practice for the last three hours. I walked over to our new rookie who had a confused look on his face.

"Come on, it's time to sign your life away.", I told him, motioning him to the fence area.

After satisfying the fans at practice, I returned to the locker room, showered and left the facility heading home.

Within two weeks, it was business as usual, the routine solidly in place, everyone trying to grasp the new offensive learning curve. It was as complex as anything I had ever witnessed and judging from Coach Reed's reactions, just as advanced as anything he had ever witnessed as well. One thing was certain, we were not going to be a plain vanilla offense, the firepower was incredible at times. I was part of three different receiving packages, five if you counted red zone situations. As I did the year before, I spent time in the film room with Josh, trying to absorb everything I could as quickly as possible. This year, I was firmly entrenched as the starter, Billy Huber was backing me up. But unlike last year, he was supportive, once again doing his best to help me when he could.

By the time our first preseason game came around, we were beginning to look half decent on offense, but still far from where we wanted to be. Defensively we were definitely better, overall this would be a better team than last season's, if everything fell accordingly. We went on the road to Tennessee for our first game, on a Friday night. The starters played most of the first quarter, scoring on three straight possessions, definitely catching our opponent off guard. They were trying to match our substitution packages on every play, which only confused them more. We shuffled four to five different players in and out on every play, you could sense their frustration building. By halftime, we had a 24-7 lead, finally coasting easily to a 35-10 victory.

We arrived home early Saturday morning, only to be back the following morning going over game film. Coach Cullen had already broken much of it down, he pointed out each and every misread, missed assignment, or failed opportunity. We were given the afternoon off, but due back early the next morning.

We won the next two games easily, the offense was beginning to gel quickly, Josh was amassing huge numbers every week. We coasted into our final game, the starters played very little, but once again we came away with a win. The hometown was buzzing, everyone talking about our new offense, expectations were high. We had our first regular season game at home, in fact the first two were home games, which was nice. Our first game would be against St. Louis, we were a seven point favorite, but at this level, anyone could beat anyone on a given day. On our first offensive series, we struck quickly. After four straight passes down the field, we were already inside of our opponent's forty yard line. Cullen sent in our four hundred overload package, my favorite package. It included three wide receivers, myself and the rookie Scott Douglas in the backfield. Josh quickly called the play in the huddle, I was waiting for this one.

"Dual left, trips motion left, power right, swing check on three.", Josh barked.

We lined up with two receivers on the left, one one the right. I was lined on the right side as well. Once Josh started cadence, the lone receiver went in motion toward the left overloading that side, leaving me as the only receiver on that side. I would run an out pattern based on the depth of the defender, I was the primary target. If I was covered, the rookie would swing out of the backfield on my side looking for a dump off pass. As predicted the defense shifted, I was covered up by the strong safety, maybe eight yards down the field. I came off the ball hard, breaking outside at about six yards down the field. The safety immediately broke on my route, closing the distance quickly. I looked back toward Josh and I saw him point downfield in my direction, at the same time seeing the rookie begin to swing out of the backfield. I knew exactly what to do, turning and braking hard up the sideline toward the end zone. Josh pumped the ball deep towards me giving the impression he was going long with the ball. Then he pulled it back down, tossing a soft pass towards the sideline. Scott was already at three quarter speed when he caught the ball only a linebacker anywhere close to him. The linebacker slowed attempting to break down and try to make a tackle, that was his mistake. The rookie made a quick upper body move to the sideline causing the defender to freeze for a split second. He then planted his outside foot and exploded to the middle of the field running through an attempted arm tackle. He flew up the middle of the field, only a shoestring last gasp effort tripping him up at the five yard line. It was first and goal at the three, we hadn't ran the ball once yet. This time the six hundred package was in, one we did run the ball out of. My main assignment was to key the strong side linebacker, attempt to slide him outside with a block, then release him and drift to the back of the end zone.

"Balance, power right, 64 slam option on two.", Josh called.

This was a designed running play, however Josh had the option to play action fake depending on what the defense did before the ball was snapped. Josh brought us to the line of scrimmage, he stepped back into the shotgun, starting cadence. As soon as he started his cadence, the strong safety began creeping up to the line of scrimmage showing blitz, right over the center's head. This meant if he did come, the area I would be drifting to after my push out block, would be open.

"Thirty six, Thirty six."Josh screamed in both directions.

These numbers were used to signal he was looking at the third option in this formation. The first option was the run, the second a quick out, the third was to me, somewhere along the back end line. Any number starting with a one, was first option, two the second option and so on. The second number meant absolutely nothing, it was only there to prevent repetition. On the snap, I came off the ball, jamming the linebacker to my left, my hands inside of his pads. I knew from his reaction, Josh had faked a hand off, he pushed off of me, accelerating into the backfield. I simply ran inside him, opening my left shoulder and looking into the backfield. The strong safety had faked a blitz, but I was two steps behind him already. I continued in a short post move, the ball was already in the air. I knew it was going to be high, Josh had read the safety falling back, he took no chance of him being able to touch the ball. I timed it closely, went up high and pulled it down, the safety all over me. I came down in bounds with several yards to spare, buried under the safety. The crowd erupted, the sound was deafening. Josh and I had worked on a new touchdown celebration during our private workouts. He would run to meet me at the goal line, we would touch helmets, I would then accelerate to the goal post jump as I as I could and dunk the ball over the crossbar.

I had worked on it for a while, the height was not a problem as I slammed the first touchdown of the year over the bar. The crowd went crazy showing their appreciation for the effort. I retrieved the ball from the turf, trotted off the field holding it tightly. Josh and I walked off the field together, everyone congratulating the both of us. As we got close to Coach Reed, he signaled us to come over.

"What the fuck was that ?", he asked, a slight grin on his face.

"I called option three coach," Josh quickly answered.

"Not the play, that fiasco after the score ?", he said, appearing to be angry.

"Oh that's the new hyper dunk move we perfected, classy ain't it ?", he replied grinning.

"You two fuckwads are mental, get out of my sight.", he growled.