Your Time

Chapter 45

It was Adam's first game playing for Clemson. And the whole family made the trip to South Carolina. He had decided before starting school that he was going to try and be a dual sport athlete, and play both football and baseball.

It had been different the last few months, not having Adam home everyday. At least three times a week, he would call home and talk to his parents.

As Adam jogged onto the field, Harrison and Carrie couldn't be more proud of him. He was excelling in school and was doing very well as a receiver. It was said he would be the number one receiver at Clemson.

With it being Adam's first college game, Emma, Billie, and Ben were allowed to skip school with their parents permission. It was mostly Carrie's permission, since she would skip school all the time in high school to watch some guy named Harrison play. Heck, she almost got a speeding ticket on the way to watch him play once.

Today, it was certain to be a game the NFL scouts would come to watch. Clemson was playing their rival Ohio State, who was certain to be good just as they were all those years ago. Scouts would be scouting Adam as well as a linebacker and quarterback from the other team.

Adam, who declined going right into the draft, but decided to get an education first, would be a hot topic for scouts and would put on a good performance.

After announcing the players and completing the coin toss, Adam and his team jogged onto the field for his first college game. Meanwhile, next to Carrie, Harrison was looking around for NFL scouts.

"I see a few," he told her. "Dallas, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Detroit, and San Francisco."

For it only being his first game, Adam had quite the crowd in terms of NFL scouts. Carrie was very glad one of the Cowboys scouts was in attendance. Her son would always talk about wanting to play for the Cowboys just as his father had. Maybe his dad would even be coaching the Cowboys when the time came. There was talk of the Cowboys potentially offering Harrison a coaching job after their current coach retired.

The first play of the game, Adam got called for a false start, pushing the offense back 10 yards so it was now 1st & 20. Not the ideal way to start out your college career. But the next play, Adam made up for the penalty, catching a pass and running it for 25 yards. First college reception, check.

He was brought down at the 50 yard line. With a new set of downs, the offense ran the ball, picking up only a few yards. They would need to gain more on the run, for only getting a little bit of yardage was not going to do them well. The next play was a run as well. But the running back was stuffed at the line of scrimmage for no gain.

Between plays, Adam must've suggested something to the coach as he readied himself by the sidelines. The next play was finally another pass. Clemson would have to capitalize on the pass play against Ohio State's defense. They were very good at stopping the run, but not so much with the pass.

Sprinting about 10 yards down the sidelines, Adam stopped and took another step towards the sidelines. His foot landed only a few inches from the bold white line. The pass was horrible. Instead of being to Adam's right where it should've been, it was way to his left, almost out of bounds. But Adam just being Adam, was able to stretch his hand out as he fell, and catch the ball one handed while keeping one foot in bounds. It was a hell of a catch. That played gained them 13 yards.

At the end of the drive, the team had to settle for a field goal, but that fueled the fire for the offense. They marched straight down the field to score a touchdown. They'd now scored 10 unanswered points.

As this took place, Carrie couldn't help but think of an upset game. Meaning they beat the number one ranked team in the country. Last year, Clemson was ranked number 17 in the country, and beating Ohio State would boost that ranking a lot.

Those thoughts were put on hold when Ohio State scored 10 points before halftime to even the score at 10. After halftime, the game remained tied at 10 until the final two minutes in the fourth quarter.

After receiving the punt from Ohio State, Clemson had the ball on their own 35 yard line with the two minute warning and three timeouts. Before the two minute warning, Clemson ran the ball, catching Ohio State off guard and gaining 20 yards to put them on Ohio State's side of the field.

"Let's see how he handles the two minute drill," Harrison said from beside her.

Most of free practice time was spent working on the two minute drill, which could make or break a game. It was the hurry up offense, where they tried to score a touchdown or field goal before two minutes was up.

Adam took his normal spot near the sidelines as they ball was snapped. The quarterback targeted another receiver, but the ball was dropped. It was second down.

He caught the next pass, running for 10 yards and picking up the first down as the clock continued to wind down. There was now 1:27 left on the clock, with Clemson on Ohio State's 37 yard line.

Following the 10 yard gain, was another pass play which resulted in a 16 yard gain. Now 0:43 left on the game clock.

When Adam set up on the line for what would most likely be the last play of the game as the clock wound down, Carrie just had that feeling that something good was going to happen.

Adam sprinted down the field, looking over his shoulder and catching the ball in the end zone as the clock hit zero. He spiked it as his team stormed the field. They'd done it, beating Ohio State 16-10 for the upset. That last pass play of the game was Adam's first college touchdown. Harrison and Carrie were pretty darn proud of him.