The Education of Giacomo Jones Ch. 05

The bus was almost eerily quiet. This was the toughest challenge this improving football team would face all year. Winning it was essential to the Generals' hopes of winning the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference and playing whoever would emerge atop the Western Division standings after the regular season for the SEC championship. Technically, Fulbright controlled its own destiny in the East. With its lone loss so far at Mississippi State, Fulbright could take charge of the Eastern Division standings with a victory over Georgia. A loss to Fulbright would give the two teams identical records if Georgia could rebound and win the rest of its games. But Fulbright would hold the tie-breaker by virtue of a head-to-head victory over Georgia.

Perry Hemphill sat at the front of the bus beside Matt Gerow, the two in quiet conversation for most of the ride. Stark Middleton would rejoin the team later in the night after scouting two high school prospects playing against each other Friday night in Louisiana. One, the top running back prospect in the Bayou State, had listed Fulbright among his final five choices alongside Florida State, LSU, Texas and Ole Miss. The other, a defensive tackle, had received only one scholarship offer from a Power Five conference school, Fulbright, because most schools had not recognized his potential, according to Fulbright's recruiting analysts.

Rance was seated beside Mojo Hale who had kept his eyes closed and his Bluetooth headphones on since the bus left Fallstrom. Hale removed the headphones and fidgeted with his smartphone.

"What you think, Rance? You think we ready for tomorrow? You got a pretty good nose for stuff like this," Hale said.

"I do. You ever see a bus this quiet? I think everybody's dialed in and every person here knows how important tomorrow is and that it's one of those rare chances in life that you get to be great. Like you said that Monday afternoon when Hemp ran us before the Vandy game. I think we're going to give it all we got tomorrow and see what happens," Rance said.

"Yeah. I guess so. Winning's kinda new to me, so I'm learning as we go, but it's been a while since I got a good night's sleep thinking about this game. These Georgia muh-fuckers about the best I ever seen. I know I feel coiled up inside like a goddamn snake, ready to strike somebody's ass," he said.

"I like our chances, Mojo," Rance said. "Somehow, I just do."

Sanford Stadium was massive. Rance and his teammates stretched and loosened up in the late afternoon sun. The kickers blasted a few field goals through the uprights from 35, 40 and 45 yards out. Deep snappers zipped the ball to punters who boomed a few balls spiraling 45 or 50 yards downfield. The team walked through a few basic plays - none of the special formations or plays they would use for the first time Saturday to confuse Georgia's defense - and Hemp summoned them together after less than 20 minutes.

"Fellows, something great is going to happen to us on this field tomorrow. I can sense something - something I can't describe. You're a team as ready to play as any I've ever seen, and I was on the Giants' coaching staff they year they upset the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl," Hemphill said.

"Boys, nobody believes in us but us. Fortunately, that's all we need," he said. "I want you to take it easy tonight. I want you to relax and let yourselves sleep. This ain't going to be easy tomorrow, but it ain't impossible."

The bus deposited the team at a Wyndham Hotel on the eastern outskirts of Athens. Fulbright had reserved the hotel ballroom and brought in a commercial-quality video projector where Hemphill had asked that the 1976 original "Rocky" movie be screened. He had seen the film the first time when he was in middle school and had always found it highly motivating before a major contest against a favored opponent.

Rance spent part of the film texting Gia, who remained behind in Fallstrom, intent on a weekend of study to close the gap caused by the disruption the previous three weeks had wrought. Since word got out that he was returning to the lineup for the first time against Georgia, he had was being pestered by sportswriters again. That was one reason Hemphill kept his team in the hotel and brought the movie to them rather than taking them to a theater. Private security had been hired to patrol the perimeter of the hotel through the night until the team left for the game Saturday.

I know ur focused on tomorrow, babe, Gia texted. I want you to be. I miss U, but you need to turn off the phone and stop worrying about me. I'm all snug in my room and safe. Be plenty of time to catch up after we WIN.

Rance was a bit disappointed. For most of the past month, she was his sole focus as no other person had ever been. Conversely, she had become his refuge. Their time apart was jarring, but she was right: this was a business trip, he had a job to do and it was time for him to refocus himself to the goal of bringing a championship home to Fulbright.

The end of the movie validated Gia's point. When Rocky Balboa dealt the decisive blow to Apollo Creed in their match and both fell exhausted to the canvas spent, it was Rocky who somehow staggered to his feet and remained standing to be declared the highly improbable victor over the world champ. Battered and his eyes swollen to the point that he couldn't see through them, he bellows into the crowd to his girlfriend, "Adrian, we did it!" Adrian, in response, tells her bloodied boyfriend, "I love you."

As hokey and cliché as it might be, that was the perfect metaphor for the next 24 hours.

Feeling strong now, Rance hummed to himself from the film's unforgettable music soundtrack. Won't be long now. Gonna fly. Flyyyyy! The melody played on a loop in his mind right up to kickoff the next afternoon at 3 p.m.

●●●

Georgia had struck for two touchdowns in the first quarter before Fulbright got its first first down. With five minutes left in the first quarter, the Bulldogs had a 14-0 lead and were deep in Fulbright territory 22 yards from their third touchdown and driving. It had seemed easy for the No. 1-ranked team in America. Too easy. The Bulldog offensive lineman were cocky and joking to one another as they got set in their stances for each play.

Georgia had done most of its damage on the ground behind one of the largest offensive fronts in college football. Now, seemingly lined up to do it again and might have done just that had Fulbright linebacker Hal Donovan failed to notice a slot back uncharacteristically lined up just inside the wide receiver - a formation and a situation Donovan had noted in his own extensive film study. He had seen this exact formation in three games Georgia had played earlier in the year - a fake sweep right that was actually a screen to the flanker, left all alone after the rest of the opposing defense had sold out to pursue the illusory sweep in the other direction. Georgia had scored touchdowns two of the three times it had run the play. What convinced Donovan that the play was coming was the flanker's penchant, once he was set, to turn his head toward the quarterback and nod. Down two touchdowns, Donovan figured it was worth the gamble.

The ball was snapped and the quarterback faked a pitch to the tailback around the right side of his line before beginning his pirouette to his left to sling the ball to the flanker. By that point, Hal Donovan was in full sprint toward the intended receiver, something Georgia's quarterback didn't realize until the ball had already left his hand. Donovan plucked the ball out of the air in stride and sprinted 78 yards for Fulbright's first touchdown, stunning the Bulldog crowd by outrunning the speedy flanker.

Georgia took the ensuing kickoff and, beset by penalties for illegal motion and holding, were forced to punt for the first time in the game. Fulbright returned the punt seven yards and began only its third offensive possession of the game at the start of the second quarter. The crowd's roar made communication in the huddle difficult for Fulbright, but this is a team that found a way to overcome the Starkville cowbells. And with much of the Generals' offense run at a brisk tempo without huddles, the offense was accustomed to visual signals and audibles at the line of scrimmage.

The first of three scripted plays was a twist on Fulbright's familiar 38 read option, a version designed during the week in practice that no one had seen yet. This was a good time to spring it and put Georgia's defense on its heels. As if to accommodate Fulbright, Georgia walked its safeties up to stuff the run it was certain would come.

The ball was snapped and, just as he had in every game so far, Matt Gerow tucked the ball into the belly of Bookie Riemer as Rance Martin battled to get leverage on and seal off the lightning-quick lineman on his inside shoulder. Rance got shoved into Bookie, stacking him up at the line of scrimmage as he attempted to skirt off Rance's outside hip. Bookie stayed low and the fake worked. No one noticed that the football was hidden in Gerow's right hand, pressed tight against his right hip until he turned abruptly, bootlegging toward his left when he arched the ball to Mojo Hale, streaking all alone 30 yards downfield parallel to the left sideline. Hale caught the ball and raced untouched into the end zone. The extra point by Gene Hurley, playing in place of the regular starter who was nursing a pulled groin muscle that he had aggravated in warmups, tied the game at 14.

In her studio apartment back on Fulbright's campus, Gia had resolved to keep the television off and catch up on missed reading and class assignments, but the temptation was irresistible. As she watched Mojo run into the end zone, she leapt off her love seat and sent the bowl of popcorn in her lap all over her floor.

The tiny wedge of Green-clad Fulbright fans and its marching band in a few end zone sections of massive Sanford Stadium had lost its mind. A team that, on paper at least, had no business hanging with a team of elite four- and five-star college football players was tied with the top-ranked defending national champ. They couldn't believe it.

Evidently, neither could Georgia. The Bulldogs looked bemused but unconcerned that the upstart Generals seemed so feisty. These things happened, they seemed to say, if not in spoken words then through their body language. They seemed not to realize that they were up against a desperate, cornered opponent fighting for its life, battling today for the right to have a tomorrow.

The strategy seemed to be to keep the ball on the ground and let the massive Bulldog offensive line grind down the smaller Fulbright defensive front. But Fulbright wasn't playing according to script. Its defensive alignments for this game were nothing like what any team had seen. There were few clues in Fulbright's game films that Georgia had doubtless analyzed to what they were seeing today. Counterintuitively, the Generals would present with a three-man front and then shift into a five-man alignment with linebackers walking up one play only to drop into short coverage, then crashing into the line the next. Georgia's offensive line was discombobulated and off-balance, and then Fulbright's speed made them look foolish.

On its first possession of the second half, Georgia lost four yards on three plays and punted for the second consecutive time. Fulbright began its next possession deep in its own territory, and Georgia's defense recognized an opportunity to blitz the Generals and pin them even deeper, maybe even in their own end zone for a safety.

Gerow recognized it and audibled into a shovel pass screen that would use the Georgia defense's own momentum against it - a little football jiujitsu. As all the Bulldog down linemen charged hard into Fulbright's blockers toward Gerow, he tucked the ball, found a seam between two defenders and flipped the ball forward to Bookie. Because the linebackers had sold out on the rush, the only thing in front of Riemers were two Georgia safeties. If he could make just one miss, he had the chance to take the ball nearly 90 yards. Bookie did what anyone who had watched his game film knew he would do: he lowered his shoulder and bowed his neck to try and punish his tackler, to run over him, to embarrass him in front of his mama and daddy in the stands or watching at home. The nearest safety recognized the challenge to his manhood and came in tensed himself to deliver an unforgiving blow.

But the blow didn't come. At the last instant, as the safety launched himself to make the hit, Bookie pulled up slightly, wheeled to his left, kept his feet and resumed his sprint downfield. With his would-be tackler sprawled helplessly on the grass and another now in full pursuit, it would be a footrace. He picked up speed past the midfield stripe and angled slightly to his right to protract the pursuit angle of his swift pursuer. He passed the Georgia 30, still running free but with the defensive back gaining. By the time he crossed the 20, he could hear his adversary's breath. As he reached the 10, he could feel the opponent's hand grope for his left thigh pad. He made the calculated decision to tack to his left, believing that the Georgia player had irrevocably committed himself by lunging for him and that the sudden directional change would provide the final separation he needed. He was right. The safety had lunged for Bookie, hoping that he would remain on course and he could disrupt him enough that he would sprawl out of bounds before reaching the goal line. The shift to the left foiled that, and Bookie stumbled into the black-painted grass of Georgia's end zone.

Fulbright had just taken the lead over Georgia, something no opponent had done since the national championship game the previous January when the Bulldogs trailed Alabama before rallying to win.

Exhausted, Riemers found himself surrounded by celebrating teammates in their white road jerseys and green helmets. Georgia's defenders were mostly straggling off the other end of the field except for the safety who had chased him to inside the 10. Now if Fulbright could only figure out how to bottle this momentum, this energy.

The rest of the first half was battled out in the middle of the field, between both teams' 30 yard lines. Georgia hit a 42-yard field goal as the first half expired, cutting Fulbright's halftime lead to 21-17. But the halftime score got the attention of the college football (and the sports betting) world.

Back in the Honors College, a text popped up on Gia's phone from her mom, momentarily filling her with dread. She opened it and smiled.

Our Rance doing pretty good. Kicking Georgia's ASS!

She had never in her life seen her mother watch a single down of American football. And "our Rance"? This, she marveled, was extraordinary.

●●●

Not even Perry Hemphill expected Fulbright to keep the Bulldogs caged indefinitely. The breakout happened early in the third quarter.

Georgia gained nine yards on the first two plays of its first possession of the second half and lined up in a heavy formation with the quarterback under center and two beefy backs behind him to bulldoze the quarterback ahead for the needed yard and a first down. Fullbright, likewise, brought in its heaviest defensive front and walked up its linebackers - a total of eight big defensive players packed in tight within two yards of the line of scrimmage. But when the ball was snapped, rather than diving ahead, the quarterback took two steps back and hit the Bulldogs' wide receiver slanting across the middle of the field. His world-class speed meant nobody in Fulbright Green was within 30 yards of him by the time he crossed the goal line. After extra point, Georgia led 24-21.

The Bulldog defense also made tactical adjustments that plugged the holes Fulbright exploited in its secondary with its first half passing. No Generals receiver had a clean shot at an uncontested catch throughout the third quarter, though Mojo Hale was able to leverage his 6-foot, 5-inch frame and his NFL-caliber leaping ability to high-point a couple of passes and bring them in over smaller defenders to keep the most promising drive of the quarter alive. It culminated on the Georgia 32 when, on fourth and three, Perry Hemphill sent Gene Hurley into the game to attempt a 49-yard field goal. Hurley and his team watched apprehensively as the ball started out seemingly on a trajectory that would take it wide of the right upright, but the ball hooked to its left midflight and squeezed inside the to tie the game at 24.

Something about that field goal buoyed Fulbright as a team. It wasn't as emphatic as a touchdown, but it proved that Fulbright was a team capable of hanging around against the best through three quarters on the road. And if that was possible for the first 45 minutes of play, why not 15 more? How deep could they dig? How much magic was in the cool, north Georgia breeze this afternoon for a miracle finish? How much better had Fulbright prepared, mentally and physically, to summon the resolve and faith necessary to overcome the fatigue of the game's final minutes?

The fourth quarter began with Georgia driving smartly downfield. This was the Bulldogs the media were accustomed to seeing, taking charge late in the game and making a statement drive. The Bulldogs had pushed to the Generals 27 in just six plays and were mixing a powerful run game with effective short passes when Georgia's All-American quarterback faked a handoff and set up in the pocket for a pass to his tight end streaking at an angle toward the center of the field seemingly all alone. But rather than loft the ball in a gentle arc to his lanky receiver for an easy touchdown, he decided to show off and drive it on a laser line to him, and that lower trajectory was all cornerback LaShon Quigley - who also had phenomenal leaping ability - needed to tip the ball into the air and then catch it as it fell and turn it upfield.

It's natural to be disappointed throwing an interception - in this case, Georgia's second. But a quarterback needs to realize his value in living to fight another play as the team's leader and not pretend he's some tackling machine out to atone for his mistake. One really good reason to realize that is the fact that quarterbacks aren't taught to tackle. Coaches tell them to avoid it at all costs unless the game hangs in the balance.

When he went diving for Quigley, the quarterback's head was down and the crown of his helmet was the first thing to make contact with Quigley's facemask. That caused two very bad things for Georgia: first, it resulted in a concussion for the quarterback; second, it resulted in a penalty for targeting, a foul that resulted in his ejection for the rest of the Fulbright game and the first half of Georgia's game the following Saturday at Auburn.

Georgia's reserve quarterback was no slouch to say the least. He was a four-star prospect out of Chicago who initially signed with Notre Dame but transferred to Georgia after his first season when the Irish changed coaches, the offensive scheme he was recruited to run got shelved and the Irish signed a five-star high school quarterback prospect. But the Bulldogs' substitute quarterback had little game experience and few reps in practice with Georgia's first-team offense.

Fulbright's offense remained near its sideline, huddled around Perry Hemphill and Stark Middleton, during the lengthy official timeout for the quarterback's injury and the video review to confirm the targeting foul against him. It was Middleton whose words hit home.

"Guys, when y'all were little kids playing in a vacant lot after school, this is that moment you imagined - everything on the line and just a few minutes to claim it or lose it forever. Well... this is it, the real thing. If you've ever wanted something that people told you was out of your reach, but here it was for the taking, then this is that moment, guys. You've worked hard. I know you want this. Y'all know what to do. Now y'all go do it," Middleton said.