Chapter 77: Asymmetric Training

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That night, William and Nolan lay in the same bed, talking in the dark without any real structure.

"Katherine is getting prettier," William said. "I wonder what kind of boyfriend she will find in college."

"Her boyfriend will definitely be handsome and outstanding."

"Then again, with that temper, maybe she will not find anyone even in college."

William laughed quietly.

"You do not understand her," Nolan said. "Maybe she is very gentle with the person she likes."

"Speaking of you, what about Sarah Gellar?"

"Maybe it is another girl. Forget that. Tell me about you. How did you make twenty thousand dollars?"

"Refurbishing, repairing, and reselling electronics. That part is pocket money." William shifted against the pillow. "The bigger piece came from a company called Accolade. This term, they contacted me because they wanted advice on reverse-engineering parts of the Sega Genesis system. They were looking for ways to make games that could run without going through Sega’s licensing."

"You did that?"

"I spent a few days reading materials, looking over what their engineers had done, and giving suggestions. They paid me fifteen thousand. The rest I saved. As for the phone, it was a damaged unit I bought cheap and rebuilt with spare parts."

Nolan understood.

So William was not just smart. He was a bargain hunter with a soldering iron.

Still, Nolan checked the legal risk carefully. If Sega ever filed a lawsuit, it would be against Accolade, not a Stanford student who had given technical advice.

William really could pay his own tuition.

Early the next morning, Katherine personally woke Nolan and William, then brought breakfast to the table.

"Wow," William said. "Katherine, you really are the one who changed the most."

When had Katherine ever served him breakfast? The idea would have sounded absurd before.

"This is too much," William said, looking at the plate. "I may not finish it."

"You sat in the wrong place. That is Nolan’s breakfast. This one is yours."

Katherine pointed to the other plate.

William looked.

Several tomato slices. A few pieces of bread. A little sauce. A little buttered corn. Even the plating looked perfunctory.

Then he looked at Nolan’s.

Steak in the morning. Fried eggs with soft centers. Fresher vegetables. Milk. Dessert. Nutritional supplements meant for athletes.

"Katherine, I am family too!" William protested.

"Money is still tight," Katherine muttered. "You are not an athlete. Why eat that much? It will not turn into muscle."

Nolan came to the table then and sat down.

Katherine immediately sat beside him with a bright smile.

"Nolan, you have training today, so I made more for you. After practice, remember to pick me up from Jennifer’s house."

Nolan nodded as if everything were completely natural.

William chewed cold, hard toast and watched Katherine lift a cup to Nolan’s mouth.

Breakfast suddenly tasted like nothing.

What William did not know was that under the table, Katherine’s hand had already found Nolan’s thigh and was squeezing gently.

Nolan had spent a full week in Orlando. She had finally waited for him to come back, only for William to appear. Of course she wanted time alone.

"At last, we have reached this point," Thomas said later that day, standing before the team with both hands on his hips. "After beating Burbank, Santa Ana, and Canoga Park, we are facing the final opponent of this delayed season."

He looked from player to player.

"I believe the moment you beat Santa Ana, you all began thinking about a bigger stage. Challenge the strongest team in California. But before any of that, we must beat the opponent in front of us. Otherwise, we become the biggest joke in the state."

His voice hardened.

"I do not want to see anyone overlooking them. Focus on now. Treat every game like the last game. Clear?"

The players answered.

"Now, recent training targets."

Thomas laid out assignments for each unit.

Nolan noticed that the quarterback work was not included.

Sure enough, when the meeting ended, Thomas kept Nolan and Reese behind.

"Nolan, I know you feel very strong right now," Thomas said. "But have you noticed what you are missing?"

Nolan pointed at his head.

"Exactly. Scheme. Tell me, Nolan. How many concepts can you run comfortably?"

"If we count only pure formations and core concepts, three."

"Only three?" Reese almost laughed, then thought about himself and shut up. Knowing more concepts had not helped him much.

"Can you suddenly master a full book of complicated plays?" Thomas asked. "No. Your body is so strong that it has made you dependent. You prefer instinct over designed structure. I do not actually mind that. In fact, I am going to use that advantage to raise our offensive efficiency."

He lowered his voice.

"And St. John Bosco is known for defense. You have not faced a team like that."

The Braves were a different challenge.

"So I want you to master an advanced quarterback skill: reading the defense. Break it into two pieces. Reading. Defense."

It sounded like nonsense.

"For the reading part, start simple. When you line up, watch where defenders are looking. It tells you what they care about and who they are responsible for. Simple, but very useful."

The defense part took Thomas half an hour.

He explained shallow zones, intermediate zones, deep zones, man coverage, mirror technique, off man, press man, zone coverage, and different coverage shells.

Nolan took out a notebook and wrote down the key points.

"Understand?"

Nolan reviewed his notes twice, locked the concepts into his mind, and nodded.

"Good. Then we start."

Thomas turned toward the players already doing skill work.

"New wrinkle for live simulation. The defense gets five extra players on the field. Offense stays at eleven. The five extras must line up behind the line, and they cannot engage the offensive line."

Then the old fox looked back at Nolan and grinned.

"I thought about this all night. This will force you to learn fast."

After warmups, the drill began.

The pressure hit Nolan immediately.

In soccer, a team could go a man down. In American football, the sport was too dependent on physical structure for true ten-on-eleven play to make sense. A player could be ejected, but the team still put eleven on the field.

Now the offense was not missing one man.

It was facing five extra defenders.

Nolan tried running. The moment he crossed the line, five bodies boxed him in.

He tried passing. Flea was covered by multiple defenders and could barely hold position for the catch.

Handing to Ford was worse.

For an entire hour, the offense gained only fifteen yards. Less than a quarter-yard per down.

Nolan realized his old methods could not produce efficient offense here.

He had to change.

He recalled the concepts Thomas had just explained and scanned the defense before the snap.

Of the five extra defenders, two were shaded toward the receivers, functioning like additional corners. Two aligned near the linebackers and watched Nolan. The final one floated between linebacker depth and safety depth.

Boar snapped the ball.

This time, Nolan did not throw immediately. He dropped into the pocket and watched the field.

Thomas, who had been close to yawning on the sideline, straightened when he saw Nolan stop attacking at top speed.

The kid had touched the core of it.

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