Joe Everybody is a player made up from a combination of many of the players I've talked to over the years. It tells the story of someone coming in and trying to make it in Big Time football.
Chapter One
"What?" angrily replied Joe when he heard the news from his friend that Scout.com had just rated him a three-star prospect. "I was the 2A defensive player of the year my junior year! I led our division in tackles and sacks, and you're telling me that warrants only three stars?"
"It ain't you," his friend consoled. "They don't know you that well. It's not like our school's got any exposure or clout. Maybe it's the fact that nobody from Mill Creek has ever been rated highly before, but whatever Dude, come some of those summer camps, the coaches will see what you got."
"Damn, man, I'm gonna knock me some five-star asses on the ground and show them!" Joe promised.
That summer Joe goes to two summer camps. The first was at Florida State where they said kind words about his abilities, but were less than impressed with his times in the 40.
Being his first camp, he was a bit nervous yet tried to maintain his cockiness to show his perceived status. One of the coaches mentioned he had good footwork and a strong initial charge, but he wasn't using his arms enough to help himself elude blocks.
His first mistake was telling that coach that whatever he was doing was working just fine, and he was laying out the runners and getting to the quarterbacks.
He knew he had made a huge mistake when he saw the look on the coach's face as the last of the ill-timed words spilled out of his mouth.
The coach offered no explanation or technique advice, he simply went on to the next player. Joe realized his mistake almost as soon as he said it.
They mentioned that they were looking to sign at least two linebackers this next signing class and they'd keep him in mind and see how his senior season went.
Joe was vowing not to repeat this mistake at the next camp. This was the school he wanted to go to. Growing up as a boy in Mill Creek, Ala., he always dreamed on playing for the Crimson Tide and having his friends back home watch him on TV.
The first day of his second camp was at Alabama. Nick Saban told him and the rest of the boys something that changed his perception of himself forever.
It was the only time since his first day at Pop Warner football practice that he had doubt about himself.
"The problem with most of you guys is when you see the games we play on television, you only see the guys on the field." said Saban. "What you fail to see is all those guys on the bench with their helmet sitting neatly under the bench. Those guys sitting there watching game after game from the bench were just like many of you.
"They were studs on their team, too, and they realized when they got here maybe they weren't so great after all and weren't the baddest dog in the junkyard after all."
At 6'3" and 212 of muscle, there had been times when was a man among boys out there, but now scanning the room he noticed Ty Williams, a 6'-5" 225 pound five-star linebacker from one of those big Birmingham schools.
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