Knowing how competitive I was, I knew that I should factor the odds of early playing time into the equation. I thought about all the schools that I’d been to, and Oklahoma stood out as a serious possibility. They had a transfer who had walked on at Texas Tech and became the first freshman walk-on to start the first game for a BCS school. Texas Tech had messed up his scholarship, and the coach hadn’t communicated it well. He’d transferred to Oklahoma, where he was forced to sit out a year. He was now their starter, and there was already talk of a possible Heisman run next year while I did my movie. I hoped they would give me a shot at the job in spring ball if I went there. I would keep them in mind if Michigan didn’t work out.
We each took our turn to meet briefly with the coaching staff. They said all the right things, and I was warming to the idea of coming to Clemson. There was no doubt that I was interested in winning national championships, and for that, right now, Clemson was a much better destination than Michigan. Football was a team sport, and a quarterback usually needed a lot of help from his teammates to push his team to the top. There were exceptions, though. I was about to watch one of them play tonight. The kid from Louisville had pulled his team up to a level where they could play with Clemson and possibly win tonight. Everyone would agree that Louisville didn’t have the athletes Clemson did.
I guess that was why going to Michigan didn’t scare me. They might not be on the same level as Ohio State or Alabama, but they were close enough that I could see them getting to the top. And a good quarterback would make the difference. Another school that fit the Michigan model was Georgia. Coach Mason had pointed out that the talent within the state should have been enough to have them competing for SEC championships. It looked like their new coaching staff had made a turn, and they were winning the in-state recruiting battles.
I know Georgia’s previous coaching staff had told me I wasn’t a priority because they wanted to focus on other quarterbacks. Now they were also in the running for the other top junior quarterback. I had a feeling that in the near future, they would begin to give Alabama a run for the title. I had faith that Alabama could stand up to the competition. But Georgia might be a team I should look harder at and possibly see if they had any interest.
Georgia was also one of those places like Texas, Miami, and Florida, where if you came in and helped them start to win again, you could be their savior. After graduation, that could pay big dividends. The same thing could be said here at Clemson. If they drew 300,000 people on game day, then you would have a core of rabid followers once you graduated.
◊◊◊
The dads made the call that we would skip dinner with the rest of the recruits and go to the Esso Club. The plan was to grab an early dinner and then enjoy the pregame festivities. Cole, our campus tour guide, was right, it wasn’t anything fancy. But I think it was perfect for what we wanted: a casual place where we could grab something to eat while our dads were able to have a beer.
When we walked in, it was packed. Dad sent me to find a waitress. I spotted one and gave her a wave to catch her attention.
“Any possibility we might get a table?” I asked.
An extremely cute girl popped up from a large table. It looked like she was there with friends and family.
“You can join us,” she offered.
When I heard her soft Southern drawl, I instantly wanted to do bad things with her.
“I have quite a few people,” I stammered as I pointed at my group.
“We can make room,” she said, and the waitress left to find more chairs.
It soon became evident that we would end up two-deep, but at least we could sit down. I was happy to see the cute girl had an older sister who was even better looking. I say ‘happy’ until I remembered I had my girlfriend with me, who was amused that I’d forgotten about her.
Before I made myself single, my best friends stepped up and started to flirt with the two girls.
“Remember our deal. What happens on recruiting trips, stays on recruiting trips,” Wolf reminded me.
I shook my head because there was no way those two could pick up the sisters. They had to be in college and wouldn’t be interested in high school boys, I reasoned. I had a bad feeling Brook might be ticked with me when she joined Tim and Wolf in talking to the girls. I wasn’t able to join in on the discussion because my parents sat on either side of me.
“What do you think so far?” Dad asked.
“I wasn’t sure whether I’d like it here or not. Now, I’m glad we came. Clemson has a lot more going for it than I suspected.”
“Are you a football recruit?” one of the dads asked.
“Yes. I’m David Dawson, and I’m with Wolf Tams and Tim Foresee,” I said, nodding to my friends.
“Wait a minute, I know you guys. You’re the ones with the #WhyNotUs handle. You’re also the actor,” another dad said.
“That would be us,” I admitted.
