Junior Year Box Set

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” Flee asked, and then did it for me. “This is David Dawson, the number-1-rated player in all of the junior class, according to all the scouting services. He was also the Co-MVP at Elite 11, and if you ask me, he was robbed. If he’d been an incoming senior, David would have been the MVP hands down. He’s also about to get his butt kicked if he doesn’t stop hitting on my girlfriend.”

I hadn’t heard about the ratings. I knew they had me as the number 1 quarterback, but usually there was some freak who played defensive end or linebacker who slipped into number 1 overall. Quarterbacks rarely were in the top five.

“Don’t even try. David is our designated fighter,” Jim said.

“I had to learn for my movie,” I said as I waggled my eyebrows at Candy.

At some point I would have to slip in that I was a model to remind her of everything she was missing. Of course, she’d seen my routine before and wasn’t falling for any of it. Flee was used to her getting hit on. That was just something that came with dating someone like her. The bus pulled up, and Tami grabbed my arm.

“Come on, Romeo, before she thinks you’re serious,” Tami said.

◊◊◊

I was impressed when the bus stopped and Coach Patrick, Northwestern’s Head Coach, greeted us each by name as we got off. He took us to a meeting room where, besides the guys I had met, there were probably fifteen other recruits and their families. That meant that there were over seventy people in the room. Coach Patrick took the podium to greet us.

“First of all, thank you all for your interest in Northwestern football. If you weren’t sure, I want you all to know that we had over a hundred and fifty requests from athletes around the country who wanted to attend today’s game. You were selected for this weekend because we think you all would be a great fit both academically and athletically here at Northwestern. We would like you to use this opportunity to find out what makes Northwestern unique, and hopefully, by the end of this weekend we can find common ground and commit to one another. Nothing would make me happier than if all of you eventually played for the Cats.

“Before we get to the football part of the discussion, I wanted to point out a few academic achievements we’re proud of here at Northwestern. The NCAA has mandated that member universities take graduation seriously. To that end, we have to submit our graduation numbers, and a report is produced each November. Our preliminary figures show that 97 percent of athletes graduated at Northwestern.

“That’s not all. The National Collegiate Scouting Association, or NCSA, helps student-athletes and their families navigate the cutthroat, competitive, and often confusing world of college recruiting. One of the tools they provide is a Power Ranking, which uses metrics like graduation rate, U.S. News & World Report ranking, and other criteria to show where you can get the best education. Northwestern ranked number 7 last year,” Coach Patrick shared.

Brandon leaned over and pointed to his tablet. Stanford and Notre Dame were ranked one and two.

“Northwestern is on the rise as far as football goes. After we beat Stanford today, who many predict to win the Pac-12, we should jump into the top twenty-five in the polls. If we play like we know we’re capable of, we should challenge for a slot in the Big 10 Championship game. If we win that, we have a shot at making the final four and playing for a shot at the National Championship.”

I was sure that a hundred teams were thinking the same way today. Everyone’s record was 0–0, and you controlled your own destiny. I loved this time of year. Anything seemed possible. Heck, Northwestern might upset a loaded Stanford team. If that happened, it could portend a great season for Northwestern. Personally, I thought they were a middle-of-the-pack team. If I had to pick the top four, my list would be Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and my surprise pick, Iowa. The reason I chose Iowa was that their schedule had them avoid the more powerful schools in the crossover games. Each school in a division had to play two schools in the other division. Iowa got Indiana and Maryland, the two weakest teams in the east. I felt Northwestern belonged in the next group, which included Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State.

I half-listened to the sales job. I had to chuckle when we were told about the traditions at Northwestern and then their mascot Willie the Wildcat came in. I’m sure Ty’s little brothers thought he was cool. He reminded me of the coyote in the old Road Runner cartoons. Even though they had similar names, the Northwestern Wildcat had been introduced in 1930, so he was the original.