Page 85 of Campus Heat

I stared at the screen, knowing I was missing something. The defense shifted slightly before the snap… The linebacker leaned inward… The safety—

I leaned forward, intrigued by what I had found. “The safety is cheating.”

A few heads turned, and Harris slowly looked over at me.

“The what?” Harris asked, seeming just as astonished as the rest of them looked.

I pointed to the top-right corner of the screen.

“Right there, number twenty-seven,” I said eagerly. “He’s leaning left before the snap.”

Dylan squinted again. “Where?”

Harris hit the rewind button again, and this time he played it in slow motion. The clip rolled, and I quickly pointed at the safety.

“Watch him,” I said.

There was a snap, and the safety took two quick steps toward the sweep side before Dylan even had the ball. Harris paused it again. The room shifted slightly as the guys leaned forward in their chairs.

“Oh,” Cam muttered.

“Yeah,” Dylan added quietly.

I gestured at the screen. “If we fake the sweep and cut inside, that guy is already out of position.”

Cam leaned forward now and rested his elbows on his knees.

“The linebacker’s sliding over too,” he added, pointing to a spot lower on the screen. “They’re over-committing.”

Harris looked from Cam to me and back again before rewinding the clip yet again.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s test that theory.”

The play ran again and the safety bit early. The linebacker shifted, and Harris pressed pause.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Harris said, his surprise evident in his voice.

A couple of the guys chuckled, but Harris couldn’t be fazed. He just turned to me with a crooked grin.

“Look who finally decided to join the team,” he teased. “And now we might actually stand a chance of winning.”

A few more guys joined in the laughter. I was one of them. It felt good to contribute and to have my efforts seen.

“I’m just telling you what I saw,” I said with a shrug.

“Well, in that case, please keep saying it,” Harris encouraged before hitting play again.

This was more thrilling than anything I’d done in quite a while. I had no idea why I was so against it in the beginning because it could give us a serious advantage. Maybe Coach wasn’t as far behind as he led us all to believe.

“Okay,” Harris said excitedly. “If we exploit that, what changes?”

Cam cautiously raised a hand. “If we motion the slot receiver across first, that might pull the corner to him.”

Dylan shook his head immediately. “No, the corner’s in zone. Watch.”

Harris rewound the clip again, and all of us paid careful attention to the corner.

“Right there,” Dylan said, pointing. “See how he’s watching the quarterback instead of the receiver?”