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Sunday- Jimbo Fisher
Jimbo sat in his office. Replaying that play over and over. That play. The one that got his star quarterback hurt. Jimbo couldn’t get a thought out of his head. If only he had decided not to be so aggressive with playcalling then maybe he would still have his quarterback for the rest of the season.
Jimbo’s quarterback, Conner Weigman, walked into his office looking down. “Hey, coach. Doc says that we aren’t able to diagnose my injury till tomorrow. He doesn’t think it’s looking good though.”
Jimbo gave a weak smile. He took a second to look around the room and gather his thoughts. “I’m sorry about the injury, son. Unfortunately, the only thing we can focus on now is the days we have until we travel to Baton Rouge next week.”
Later that day, after Jimbo had continued reviewing film, taken a nap, and spoken with the coaches, he sat down to have dinner at home. Jimbo dug into his steak and pondered what this next week might hold. After starting the season unbeaten after eleven games, they had one game left to essentially lock in their spot in the playoff. This time they were doing it without their star player.
Luckily, games are won by a team, not a player, Jimbo thought.
Jimbo, having had a long day, sat down to read a book. Just like it had been all day, his mind couldn’t stop racing. He thought about his star player. He thought about the team. He thought about the coaches. He thought about… just then his phone rang.
“Howdy Jimbo!” The voice was the all-too-familiar voice of his boss, Ross Bjork. Ross was the Athletic Director for Texas A&M. Jimbo knew a phone call at this time of night couldn’t be a good sign.
“This can’t be good,” Jimbo responded, “What can I do for you?”
Ross spoke, “Remember the hurricane that hit a couple of months ago? Well, it turns out that Baton Rouge is still facing some problems with it. LSU has been able to host games all season, but with recent water damage and a massive crowd, they’re a little nervous about hosting a game there this weekend.”
“So what does that mean for the game? Are we not going to play? Are they going to forfeit?”
“Slow it down there,” Ross replied. “We’re working with the administration at LSU to come to a decision that pleases both teams. I’m assuming you would like to play the game right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know if a decision is made. Sorry to hear about Conner by the way.”
“Well the doctor hasn’t diagnosed it yet, so he may still be able to play this weekend.”
Jimbo was restless that night. Players of his had gotten injured before, but something about this one felt different. He kept reliving the decision over and over in his head. Had he jeopardized their season because he wanted to beat up on a small school? It felt wrong looking back, but he tried to give himself some grace. Eventually, Jimbo fell into a deep slumber, ready for the busyness of the week to take over his mind.
Monday- Conner Weigman
Conner awoke still feeling stiff. He sat in silence looking around his room for a bit before remembering the injury his arm sustained in Saturday’s game. He attempted to move his arm up so that he could look at it. Just then his arm seared with pain.
“Dang it,” Conner belted.
Going about his morning routine one-handed, Conner moved slowly. After a slow start to the morning, Conner made his way to campus so he could get his arm checked out once again.
Not feeling confident, Conner asked the doctor what the status was of his arm.
“It’s not looking good.”
“So what do you think about me playing this weekend?”
“It’s not happening. I’m sorry Conner. This is for your safety.”
The doctor continued on, but Conner didn’t hear any of it. His mind was now racing. He worried about the team. What would he tell them?
Conner went straight from the doctor’s office to Jimbo’s office. He walked in and tried to give his coach a smile.
“Hey Conner,” Jimbo said weakly, “Shouldn’t you be in class right now?”
“I can’t play this weekend,” Conner squeaked.
“Yeah… I heard. I talked with the doctor this morning. I’m sorry to hear. We can’t control injuries sometimes though. I’ll need your leadership this week to help prep the quarterback we decide to start.”
“Of course coach, “Conner said quietly, “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything wrong. If anything I should be apologizing to you! There was no reason for me to call a quarterback draw up by 20 points.”
Conner could tell this wasn’t going anywhere. They finished up and he headed to class. On his way there he could feel eyes beading into him. He knew that everyone saw his injury last weekend. He knew everyone was looking at the new cast on his arm. He could hear whispers and felt the rumors starting
Later that day, Conner made his way from class back to the football facility for practice. Of course, Conner couldn’t practice. Before heading out for the day, Conner went to Jimbo’s office for a meeting with Jimbo and his Offensive Coordinator Bobby Petrino.
“Okay so what’s the gameplan, Bob?” asked Jimbo.
Bobby responded, “We’ll go with Johnson for this weekend. Conner will help him break down film and talk him through what the receivers like.”
Conner was satisfied with this. He knew that worrying about what could have been would be pointless. All he could control now was what was in front of him. He planned to do his best at what everything that was presented to him.
Just then, Ross Bjork burst into the room. “Sorry Jimbo, I know this is important. We’ve come to an agreement about the game this weekend. I’ll need your okay before we make it all official,” Ross said.
Conner didn’t know what they could be talking about. He had heard rumors that LSU may not be able to host the game, but there’s no way that happened, right? He had heard of teams canceling for numerous reasons before, but a hurricane that happened three months ago was unheard of.
Putting the distractions behind him, Conner got to work helping out the team at practice. Practice went by in a hurry. Conner seemed much busier than he usually was during practice. Coaching is not for me he thought to himself.
Later that night, he gave his parents a call before heading off to bed. His parents were his go-to whenever he was feeling a little stressed. Per usual, it helped. Conner went to bed feeling much better, and much less stiff, than he had when he had woken that morning.
Tuesday- Luke Steele
The alarm went off. And continued to go off for 15 minutes.
Eventually Luke decided to get out of bed and stop the horrible noise. Luke didn’t like the person who created alarm clocks. But that was beside the point, he was running late now.
After hopping in the shower and eating a protein bar, Luke jumped in his car to head to class. Right as he turned his car on, he checked his phone. The first thing he saw was an email stating that the Texas A&M football game that weekend had been moved to College Station.
Luke immediately called his best friend Micah to talk about the news. “Can you believe this? No one could have guessed that this would happen! One more home game!”
Luke and Micah had been best friends since third grade. They had bonded over their love of sports. They had gone to every home football game together, and they surely weren’t going to stop now.
After hanging up, Luke met up with Micah and headed to class. There was a newfound excitement in the air. The buzz was palpable as he sat in his favorite study spot waiting for the class before his to get out. But suddenly, as he was reading over his notes from the previous class, Luke looks up and sees Conner Weigman walk by with his arm in a cast. Micah and Luke immediately looked at each other. Neither could say a word.
Luke felt his phone vibrate and looked down at a text from his mother. “How will they give out student tickets? Maybe you’ll be able to get good seats for once!” Luke, being a sophomore, hadn’t had better seats than the second deck this season. He pondered the idea for a second and then decided that he didn’t care where he sat. He was just happy to have one more football game.
When Luke got into class and sat at his usual table, a buddy of his blurted out, “Have you heard the rumor? Sounds like Conner is out for the game this weekend!”
Luke didn’t typically listen to this friend so he played it off like he didn’t care. But deep down he thought that his friend might be correct.
Later that day, Luke received an email saying that ticket pull would be first come, first served at 6 pm. This excited Luke greatly. He skipped the rest of his classes for the day so that he could go camp out front for tickets.
Around 5:30 Micah showed up to help Luke pull tickets. They were pretty far up in the line and thought that they might actually get good seats.
And they were right! Luke looked down at his tickets and saw the number 1 signifying that they had received first-deck seats. Luke and Micah turn to each other and give a little yelp. They couldn’t believe this had happened! They got first deck!
Eventually, after the long day, Luke gets home and lays down to rest dreaming of the big game this weekend.
Wednesday- Jayden Daniels
Jayden woke up to a sweaty bed. He looked around, gathered his belongings, and checked his phone. On his phone were many texts regarding the game this weekend. His mother had sent a text expressing her disappointment in him not receiving his senior game.
Jayden had played amazingly all season. He had led LSU to a 9-2 record this season. Although the team wasn’t where they had hoped to be, Jayden still had a season worthy of being drafted.
Jayden drove to campus and prepared for practice. Although he was disappointed, he was determined to finish the regular season on a high note. He wasn’t sure if this would be his last game. He had decided that it would be before the game got moved to College Station. However, now he thought he might play in their bowl game as well just so he could play for the LSU faithful one last time.
The day was slow and unenjoyable for Jayden. He knew that he needed to put on a front for the fans, but it was tough to do so. He had a brief conversation with Coach Kelly that morning regarding the fact that he was the anchor for this team. He felt as though he was letting his coach down.
Jayden went home early, skipping a class. He couldn’t take the disappointment anymore. He put his feet up to go to bed early and suddenly he received a call from Scott Woodward, the athletic director for LSU. He couldn’t imagine what this could be about…
Thursday- Ross Bjork
Ross awoke feeling good. His athletic program was at its peak. The football team was on its largest winning streak in a long time. He was excited about the future, but he pushed all of the thoughts to the back of his mind. He had work to do today.
This had been the busiest week he had had in a while. With the location change for the football game to the firing of a coach committing some unbelievable acts, he had been totally full for the week.
Ross got to work and did his normal sweep, saying good morning to a few of his coworkers. He couldn’t spend long, because he had a lot of work to do just like usual.
Yesterday he spoke with LSU’s athletic director, Scott Woodward. They spoke extensively about the upcoming game and what changes needed to be made. Towards the end of the conversation, Ross got an idea, though.
“Hey Scott, y’all were supposed to have senior day this weekend, no?”
“Yeah,” Scott croaked, “We’re trying to figure out a replacement for that. I know a lot of the guys are disappointed.”
Ross thought to himself for a second then said, “How about we do something for them, here in Kyle Field?”
Scott thought it was a grand idea and exclaimed his interest.
“Okay. Talk with some of your guys, and I’ll talk with some of mine and make sure this thing works. I appreciate you working so well with me this week. I know this season has been tough.”
The rest of the day was a whirlwind. He making calls all day pitching his idea to the higher ups. After some extensive communication, they came to an agreement on what would happen. Ross was pleased. He was glad that they were still going to have the opportunity to give some praise to the LSU seniors. He knew no rivalry was worth being rude over.
After a late evening at the office, Ross got home ate dinner, and immediately went to bed. He had been struggling to get enough sleep that night, but he was determined to fix that tonight. Ross laid his head down and almost immediately he was asleep.
Friday- Reveille
Reveille woke up early per usual. She looked at the clock on the bedstand and realized she had no idea what time it was, for she couldn’t read. She was a dog after all. She could hear her handler starting to wake up as well. She stood up ad walked over to nuzzle against him. She always enjoyed the early morning scratches she received.
After her handler, Grayson, finished getting ready they headed out into the big day. Reveille always loved gameday, but her next favorite day was the day before. She felt like the queen on campus. She would make appearances to people just starting to set up their tents for tailgating, see tons of new non-student faces, and practice her drills for the following day.
This day felt a little different though. There seemed to be many more people on campus. She tried not to get excited, but that was tough to do. As someone was taking a picture with her, Reveille thought to herself, “Woof.” She didn’t have many actual thoughts.
After Reveille’s exciting morning, she had a class to attend. It was an engineering class. She didn’t understand much engineering, but when the professor asked for the answer to a tough equation, Reveille thought she knew the answer.
“Woof!” Reveille boomed. Everyone gave a huge laugh. This made Reveille feel bad. She thought she was at least close to the answer. Laughter because of a wrong answer? This seemed absurd. The professor seemed to think this was all a big enough distraction to let the class go early. She was embarrassed that she ended class early, but relieved that she had been put out of her misery early enough.
She went on with her day.
Later that evening, Grayson started to put her typical gameday attire on. She had almost forgotten! Her favorite part about fridays was friday night. She wasn’’t quite sure what they did on Friday nights, but she always found it exhilarating. The loud boom always scared her, the echoes of people yelling uncomforted her, and the random whooping excited her.
As Reveille marched into Kyle Field, she looked around at the countless people who were there. She felt like the star of the show, well she always felt like that. She looked towards the field and saw some guys in white doing something on the ground, she wasn’t sure quite what.
She sat and waited. This was her least favorite part. She waited, and when the waiting ended the boom would happen. Suddenly it happened.
BOOM!
Per usual, it startled her beyond belief. She let out a couple of barks as the crowd did something similar. This was where there the fun began.
One of her good friends, the guy in the full white outfit, went to the middle of the field and gave a little speech. He mentioned something about Swamp Kitties (Reveille wasn’t sure what a swamp kitty was, but she knew she didn’t like cats) and she gave a little bark.
After the long evening, she went back to her dorm, did a few circles on the bed and then promptly plopped down.
Saturday- Josh Pate
Josh was excited. He hadn’t gotten much sleep that night, but that didn’t bother him. He knew this game could be huge.
Despite all of the haters on his widely popular YouTube channel, he wasn’t a Texas A&M fan. That didn’t mean he disliked them though. He typically didn’t have a rooting interest in the games he went to. He appreciated the sport, not the winner. Today was different however. He wanted Texas A&M to win. He knew that if they won today and the rest of the season, the college football landscape would change drastically.
Josh sent out a few tweets about big games happening that day and then promptly got to work. He did a little research regarding the game he would be attending.
After finishing work, he headed out to the tailgate spots on campus. He always loved seeing the tailgating, and College Station on gameday was no different. He looked up at the massive stadium and gave a little smile.
Ashe walked over, he saw College Gameday doing their thing. There were many students cheering and going nuts. Again, he let out a smile.
These were the days he lived for.
He went to a tailgate he was invited to. He was invited by a fan of his show. He loved this perk to being mildly famous. Free food.
From the tailgate, he went to Kyle Field, picked up his press pass, and started doing primary filming. He always loved the moments before a stadium filled up. It was like a pot of water waiting to boil. One moment you’re waiting for something to happen and then the next thing you know, everything is going nuts.
As the crowd filled in, he felt the temperature rise. Despite the sun setting, fans were getting more nervous and it was noticeable in the air. Again, this was one of his favorite moments of a big game.
And there it was. The first whistle blew and he knew this would be a game that could change people, programs, and universities. This was the climax.
The game went about how he thought it would go. Despite not being as good as some had hoped this season, LSU had shown up to play tonight. Their quarterback, Jayden Daniels, was playing like his legacy was on the line. Josh thought that this was partially because Jayden was possibly playing his last game as a Tiger. He thought it was considerate of Texas A&M to host a special senior night for the LSU team before they played, even if it might come back to bite them. All that was beside the point though. For Texas A&M, however, they were down their starting quarterback, Conner Weigman. Except things got worse from there. Overnight, news broke that the backup quarterback, Max Johnson, caught the flu. This meant that they were playing with a walk-on quarterback. This was such a typical Texas A&M moment. Have everything go wrong right when they were about to peak. Josh was confident that as long as the walk-on could just manage the game then they should still have an easy win.
The bodies of the players flew in every direction like heat-seeking missiles. The clanging of helmets echoed through Josh’s head. The roar of the crowd matched that of a lion.
Halftime rolled around and Texas A&M was down by 3. Josh had expected the game to be close, but he also expected it to be close in favor of Texas A&M. He wasn’t sure how the rest of the game would play out, but it would definitely be one for the ages.
The second half felt like a battle between two giants. Going blow for blow, the game was as intense as a game Josh had ever seen. Surprisingly, Texas A&M’s walk-on quarterback was playing exceptionally well. This was one of the best performances Josh had ever seen, and it was coming from a walk-on! It felt like the magic had to die out soon enough though.
As the end of the game approached, it started to look more and more likely that whichever team ended the game with the ball would win. As it would have it, Texas A&M would have the ball last. With 1 minute to go, they were driving with the ball. Down 42-38 this was their last shot to win the game. They needed a touchdown. The drive started off slow but quickly picked up steam. The team had relied on the runningbacks all night despite the walk-ons performance. Unfortunately, they couldn’t rely on them now. There was enough time to run the clock down They needed to go. With 3 seconds left, needing a touchdown, the walk-on launched it toward the endzone. To Josh’s surprise the all-american receiver, Evan Stewart, couldn’t catch it.
From his angle, he couldn’t tell if there was any foul play, but to the refs, it must’ve been obvious. Flags seemed to fly from every direction.
The crowd went wild. Every head turned towards the jumbotron and groaned as the replay showed on the screen. Josh hated when games ended with controversial calls. He didn’t feel that it was controversial, but he knew many of his viewers would think it was.
So this was it. The whole game came down to this. The chaotic week. The injuries, The storm. The location changed. It all came down to this. Josh had never anticipated that this game would end with one final play, but here he was.
As the ball was hiked, a timeout was taken. Josh groaned. He hated when this happened. Just play the game.
After what felt like hours, the teams came back out onto the field from their sidelines. The ball was snapped, this time no timeout. The walk-on looked flustered. He rolled out, looking for his ever-so-reliable receiver. Suddenly there he was. Evan Stewart is on a route that would have him open in the corner. The ball was launched. It didn’t look like a great throw. The receiver adjusted to get a better shot at the ball. He jumped and grabbed the ball at the high point of his jump.
As if time had stopped, every eye shot towards the ground to see where his feet would land. A pen could drop and a student sitting on the third deck could hear it. The silence was overwhelming.
Then the roar of the crowd took over. Texas A&M had done it. They went undefeated in the regular season for the first time in forever. Josh smiled as he watched students start to pile onto the field. Josh looked over towards Jimbo shaking Ross Bjork’s hand before heading to midfield to congratulate the opposing coach and his own players. He looked over and saw an injured Conner Weigman shaking hands with Jayden Daniels, no doubt wishing him good luck with the draft. He even thought he saw Reveille storming the field, joining in with the students.
Josh didn’t know what the rest of the season was going to look like for Texas A&M, but he felt like they had turned a corner for the better in regard to the program as a whole. This was the moment Aggies had been waiting for their entire lives.