Guts vs Glory Read Free Page A

sure
it was just adrenaline.
    After stretching, exercising, and
speed drills, we were broken up into small groups.  Mike was put into a group
of runners.  They called those guys running backs.  All they did was hold onto
the football and run as hard, and as fast, as they could.  My group was made of
blockers and tacklers.  This group was a little unique because it was broken
into two separate sub-groups, yet we all had the same coach.  One group, the
offensive linemen, played when our team had the ball.  Their goal was to make
sure our quarterback didn’t get tackled while trying to throw the ball.  The
other group, the defensive linemen, played when our opponent had the ball. 
Their goal was to tackle the guy with the ball; usually the running back or
quarterback. 
    There were 12 guys total in our
group.  A starting offensive line consisted of five players, while a starting
defensive line generally consisted of four, for a total of 9 starters.  That
meant that at the very least, I would be one of three backup players; which in
turn meant more playing time for me than I expected.  The line coach quickly corrected
my assumption by reminding our group that some of us would be starting on both the
offensive and defensive line.  I now understood the importance of being in such
good shape.  Not only did we have to be strong enough to tackle or block, and
fast enough to catch the guy with the ball, but we also had to be able to play
long periods of time with very few breaks.
    We spent about two hours working on
plays that day.  The plays were pretty easy for us to remember because our
roles pretty much remained consistent for every play; there were just a couple
of trick plays that we had to remember.  Otherwise, once the ball was snapped,
the offensive linemen stood and blocked the defensive linemen, while making
room for the running back.  The defensive linemen had to run through the
offensive linemen in an effort to tackle the guy with the ball.  The logistics
seemed easy enough, but again, the struggle was keeping up with everyone else
while only taking limited breaks.
    Mike didn’t have it as easy as I
did.  I thought the simple concept was to run every time he had the ball.  What
I didn’t realize was the amount of plays he would have to memorize.  There were
almost 50 plays involving the running back position.  Sometimes they ran left,
sometimes they ran right, sometimes they ran up the middle, and sometimes they
didn’t run at all.  A major challenge for him was that each play was assigned a
numeric code.  Rather than the coach telling each player what they had to do,
the coach would give signals to the quarterback, who would then say something
silly to the offense like “34 iso”.  Due to the intense memorization required
to know what each numeric code meant, Mike was forced to divide our designated
studying time between doing homework, studying for exams, and now, memorizing
plays. 

Chapter 8
    The next day seemed very similar to
the one before.  We were able to fall asleep early the night before because of
the long day, which made us more refreshed when we woke up at dawn.  That time,
we were able to lift a little more weight and run a little longer.  After
struggling through class, we made it to our second practice.  Practice was a
little different the second time.
    I was taught in practice the
previous day how to block and how to tackle.  With my large size, blocking was
easy.  With a little more strength, I felt my blocking could be the best on the
team.  As a defender, I didn’t get a chance to deliver my first tackle. 
Instead, we continued working on getting past the offensive line, which was
where being a big guy helped.  Waiting for the snap was another issue, though. 
As I mentioned earlier, our simple job was to block or tackle as soon as the
ball was snapped.  The hard part for me was patiently waiting for the ball to
be snapped.
    As linemen on either side of