Life Changes
	I woke up thinking about how the heck I was going to recruit John Rosis. He was the best high school football player in the nation. He could run, he could catch, and he was 6 “4”. We had no lead on him because we were Vanderbilt.  Teams like Alabama and LSU had him in their grasps, but the one thing that Vandy (Vanderbilt) has is it’s a very academic school. I mean not amazing like a an Ivy League school, but good for division 1 football.  I mean don’t get me wrong-Alabama and Texas are great schools but they don’t use that in their recruiting.  We do, cause that’s pretty much all we have.
	When I got down to Tampa Bay I went to their high school football game and man, he tore the place up. Scouts from all over the country were there all staring at the same guy. After the game scouts swarmed him. I stayed back like I usually do and went to the parking lot and waited. 
	The thing is, football players don’t like to be talked to right after the game. They want to take a shower and relax and then talk, so I waited and he came out looking like the President. All dressed up with a tie and suit.  He looked surprised to see me. He thanked me for waiting for him. We talked for almost an hour then he got into his car and left. At that date and time the best thing that would happened to Vanderbilt football took place.
	The next morning I woke up with one message on my machine it said “Yahoooooooooooooo!!!! We got him We got him We got John Rosis callllll meeee -Coach David” (Vandy head football coach).  I started jumping up and down, up and down.  I called Coach David just to make sure it was true, and even more good news. More recruits called us because we got John and now they were interested. 
	That night all of the coaches went to a bar and celebrated. It was crazy and we had got a call from a few other players that they will be coming to Vandy. It was probably the best night of my life.
	The next morning I woke up at 12 o’clock, and was still tired. But, it was worth it because when I woke up I had twenty recruits’ families on my phone all saying they  would like their kid to play football in Nashville, Tennessee (Vanderbilt University). I was jumping around, screaming out the window. It was probably going to be the best football season ever for Vanderbilt University, I thought.
	I had a meeting with the athletic director. He wanted to congratulate me on the recruits that we were getting.  Then he started talking about how we were not going to redshirt any of them. He told me he wanted to start all of the freshman. Then he stood up and shook my hand and walked away. My mouth dropped. I could not believe what I had just heard. He wanted us to start all of the recruits we were getting. I had to get all of the recruits here by tomorrow. 
	The next morning all 22 of them were waiting outside the indoor football facility. I started walking toward them and I could faintly hear our tour guide talking. His name was Bill, nice guy. They started moving on to their dorms. A few of them said hi to me including John Rosis. I went into the facility and saw some of the veteran players working out including “super freak.” His real name was Warren Norman. We thought he was the fastest player in the SEC, but not according to other people. I started thinking about how we were going to play in are opener two weeks from now vs. South Carolina.  It was going to be tough opening to our season at South Carolina. Especially with 20 freshmen starting. It was going to be a really tough two weeks trying to get all the freshmen knowing the playbook and the timing of the plays. It could pay off or it could be a disaster.

	When I got to the football facility, players were already working out and running around the field. Coach Franklin (Vanderbilt football coach) was standing on the fifty yard line with some other coaches. That is what we do during the first hour of practice. We talk about position changes, redshirting, and special teams. Then we have an hour of running plays and then an hour of watching film and studying play books. 
	Later in the day some fans came and watched with foam fingers and beer. The fans had very high expectations for our football team, so everyday every single one of the coaches and I prayed that we would have a winning season. Everyone of us knew if we did not, all of us would be fired without hesitation.

	Most of the freshmen were catching on pretty quick. We would scrimmage  in the stadium. It would be open to the public, so this was almost like a game to us. John Rosis was obviously the best player on our team. He could catch the ball over anyone’s head no matter who was guarding him. He is as fast as the fastest guy on our team who is a redshirted senior. The one problem he had was injuries. He always had a sprained ankle or a broken finger or something. We were only going to play him for ten plays during the scrimmage but he convinced us to let him play the whole game.
	The day of the scrimmage was crazy! Streamers everywhere, black and gold cups all over the streets, and of course, some students stumbling around trying to find their way to the stadium.
	When I got in the locker room it was dead quiet. Everyone in that locker room was sweating bullets and chewing on their mouth guard looking onto the field like it was a hungry lion. When Coach Franklin gave his pre-game speech everything changed as it usually did. Players were now looking like they were the hungry lion and the football was the steak.
	When we ran out of the tunnel, the stadium erupted in screaming and yelling. The stadium was almost filled, which is great because most spring games half the stadium is for homeless people trying to sleep on the seats. But not this time. All the players were jumping around and screaming also, especially our starting quarterback Jordan Rodgers. He is Aaron Rodgers’ brother he always was sad; he rarely ever smiled. If you try to talk to him about Aaron he will punch you, so don’t try it. Not today though, he was jumping and smiling like it was his last day alive.
	When the game started you could tell it was going to be a great game and man it was probably the best scrimmage I had ever seen.

	At the end of the game, Jordan Rodgers had 384 passing yards and 39 rushing. John Rosis had 201 yards receiving with 6 receptions even though he only played only 3 quarters. The coaches were pretty damn happy. 
	

	We started practicing inside after the scrimmage. We didn’t have the best indoor facility but it was good enough. We were not pushing our players as much as we should have, in my opinion. Our team was looking more and more slow, even Rosis. When we ran plays against the defense, time after time our players would just lay there with their eyes closed until one of the coaches yelled at them.

	The coaches had a meeting the next day. “We need to get our players heads back on,” said coach Franklin. “We look like Southern Coastal Carolina out there.” 
	“We play South Carolina in a week, we need to do something,” said assistant coach Bill Hanger.
	After the meeting, coach Franklin decided that all the practices would be conditioning without pads until everyone could run the mile under 5 minutes. The players, as you would figure, were not so keen on that idea.

	We came into the South Carolina game confident, and very scared. We knew we could beat them, but the problem was that we knew all of the younger players would shy away from contact. In a way it was good. We scheduled them as our first game so we could get all the butterflies out of their stomachs. I thought to myself that this could decide my coaching career at Vanderbilt and anywhere! I could see myself working in a little cubical at Paper Inc. If we lose the first two games of the season training coaches and I will be fired in a heart beat I had already set up a meeting with Harvard  University for a head coaching job, so I do have somewhat of a back-up job if I get fired from Vandy. 
	We started off the game by letting up a kick return for a touchdown, which is never a momentum booster for us. Later in the game they picked off a pass and took it all the way back to our 5-yard line, and later they pounded it in for a touchdown. I could already see myself with a crimson visor with a big H on it.
	At halftime it was 17 to 3 in favor of South Carolina. Coach Franklin knew that it was all over, already. John Rosis was out for the game because of some injury to his hamstring, but he seemed to be in massive pain. “This will be one hell of a season if Rosis is gone,” said coach Franklin mumbling to me, and he was right.
	I got the letter the next day. It read “ We are releasing you from Vanderbilt University Football Program,” Then a bunch of stuff that I had to sign and how I had to move out by Friday (it was Tuesday). I guess I am going to be coaching at Harvard University. Now I can really recruit saying we are an Ivy league School.

	When I got to Cambridge, the Athletic Director was waiting for me when I got off the plane. He gave me the whole overview, how I would start coaching next year right after Harvard’s current season was over. The best part was that the university was paying for my dorm room when I was not even coaching!
	I got to my dorm room and wow! It was bigger than the house I’d had in Nashville and I was not paying for it! I jumped on the bed and looked at the ceiling and thought about what had gone on in these last two months. “Man, life changes,” I said to myself.

	Mr. Stingler (main character) was the Head coach at Harvard University for 5 years and then was the assistant coach for North Carolina for 2 more years before he retired.
	
John Rosis entered the NFL draft after his Junior year, but not before finishing second in two Heisman Trophy poles.
Coach Franklin was fired right after their season was over and is now the coach of Delaware University.
 
The End
Life Changes, 6-8, p.1