“I have to say, David’s not what we expected,” Matt said.
“You better explain that,” his dad chided.
“Oh, sorry. It’s just that we were prepared to hate you. The press was relentless with questions about whether Elite 11 was legitimate without you there to defend your title. The coaches also used you as an example if we did something wrong.”
“That’s why we decided to come to camp. We wanted to meet you and see how we measured up. Then they stick us with that kid Mike who hates your guts,” Jay said.
“I don’t know why. He’s been the cause of all his own problems,” I said.
“It’s sometimes easy to be a target when you’re on top, but you won’t have to worry about that for long,” Larry said with a smile.
“You poor delusional fool, you just poked the bear,” Mom said.
“Never challenge David unless you’re prepared to get his best,” Brad Hope offered. “I’ve watched him play enough to know you never want to do that.”
“Good. I want your best game. We’ll have to lose Mike tomorrow. I want to see what you have,” Larry said.
After dinner, we went out on the back patio and drank iced tea. I had Cassidy tell them about Cuba and Japan while I filled them in on baseball.
“I can’t imagine trying two sports at that level. How do you do it?” Larry asked.
“I’ve always loved baseball. I didn’t start playing football until I was a freshman.”
“Wow. I think I started before I could walk. My dad has always wanted me to be a quarterback. He played at San Diego State,” Matt shared.
“I’ve never gotten a chance to play baseball. I play in seven-on-seven leagues during the spring,” Jay said.
“If possible, I plan to play both in college,” I admitted.
“I would bet they’re not going to like that,” Larry said.
“Yeah, I got a taste of that today,” I said, and then shared with them what the Michigan offensive coordinator had said.
“I wouldn’t worry too much. If they want you, they’ll make sure you can do both,” Matt said.
“It’s not like it’s a secret.”
“I’m actually a little jealous. I keep reading about injuries and concussions playing football. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it,” Jay said.
“If you asked my mom, she would rather I not play football, but I love it,” I admitted.
Of the three guys, I liked Matt the best. I teased him about going to USC with my friend Ridge there. He had much the same attitude I did: Ridge would make an excellent valet for carrying his bags. I liked his confidence.
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Chapter 27 – Breakup Song Do-Over Thursday July 21
Today, I was put with the three quarterbacks from this year’s Elite 11. It’s easy to spot high-level talent when you see it. All three of these guys might be playing on Sunday at some point. I realized that I’d upped my game as well. One of the comments in the dossier Jeff gave me said something about me rising to the level of my competition. I understood what that meant today.
Yesterday felt comfortable. I eased into throwing and focused a lot of my time on helping my fellow quarterbacks and players get better. Somehow yesterday reminded me that when I first met Ridge, I thought he was a bit of a jerk. But he wasn’t; he was just focused. It wasn’t about him not being my friend or talking to me. It was about him doing his job and being the best quarterback he could be.
Jay, Matt, and Larry appeared to be friends by the way they talked between plays. Elite 11 does that. You’ve gone through a fairly intense experience together and have come out a better player on the other end.
They taught us at Elite 11 that camp was about you competing against yourself. That helped us avoid some of the pitfalls of competing against each other. There was no doubt that someone would be better than you were at something. It simply couldn’t be helped at that high level of talent. That didn’t mean that I wasn’t aware of the other quarterbacks.
What I saw in practice was that the other three quarterbacks were having a bit of a letdown and enjoying what they were doing. I was sure they were here to see how they measured up against me. Heck, they’d said so. It was just that they should’ve brought their A game.
Something else that was different today was that scouts from the various services were in the stands, along with college recruiters. Neither Larry nor I had picked our school yet. The opportunity to see us go head-to-head was just too good for the top programs to pass up. The rumor was that Larry was a lock to go to Clemson, which was also one of the schools on my list. It looked like they had their whole coaching staff here.
I asked Moose later how they all got into Michigan’s camp, and he said it was because it was at Lincoln High, and Coach Hope had wanted it open. Not for me, but for the other players we had who wanted to play football after high school.
