by Nick Eatman
“You can’t do that KD,” said one of the backup linemen, trying to calm the situation.
“I’m hurt, man. I’m hurt. I hate losing to them. I’m hurt!” Cannon said with his head down and a couple of his teammates hugging him on their way into the locker room.
All year long, the players had come together before each game and then broken the huddle by saying “Big 12 Champs.”
And now, for the first time since the members of this senior class were freshmen, they realized it wasn’t going to happen.
The visiting locker room at TCU isn’t the biggest, forcing the training tables to be outside the doors in a busy hallway. As the teary-eyed players listened to Briles and the coaches discuss the game, two sat outside the locker room, staring at the ground but not saying a word.
Injured quarterbacks Seth Russell and Jarrett Stidham could only sit there in disbelief. Russell was wearing a heavy neck brace following surgery back in October while Stidham was leaning on crutches after suffering a broken foot just six days earlier at Oklahoma State.
Both of them wondered what could’ve been. Sure, the rain would’ve been problematic for either of them, but they figured they could’ve completed a few passes in the second half and sustained a few more drives. In this game, just one field goal in the second half would’ve sent the Bears to 10–1, leaving them one home win away, against Texas the next week, from clinching a third straight title. Instead, Baylor lost the most intense rivalry game on its schedule.
Briles called it the worst weather conditions he’d ever played in during his thirty-seven years of coaching. His son, Kendal, could only think of a seventh-grade football game he played against Lancaster, back when the family lived in Stephenville.
“It sleeted the whole game and it was a muddy field,” Kendal recalled. “We got beat, 6–2, and I can remember standing in my garage naked because I had to take off all of my clothes before I could go in and shower. It was the coldest I had ever been in my life. But that was nothing compared to the relentless weather we had in Fort Worth.”
But Kendal admits the TCU game, and even that one against Lancaster when he was 13 years old, would’ve been more gratifying had his team come out victorious.
On the other side of the stadium, reporters filled the TCU press conference room, wondering just what Patterson might say after this amazing, emotional night. But those who were waiting, maybe hoping for some explosive comments this time around would be disappointed. Patterson had nothing but praise for his rivals.
“Well, first off, Baylor has a great football season, period, end of story,” Patterson said. “It’s hard for them. They had to play without their quarterback. If it’s been difficult for them, they’ve hung tough and haven’t made excuses. I know you guys think it’s a rivalry, but it’s a good Baylor football team. Very well coached. But it was very good for TCU tonight. We found a way to win.”
As the Baylor players left the stadium, they were met by, what else, more rain, which drenched them again as they scurried into the coach buses that were fired up and ready to head back to Waco.
With spirits and clothes dampened, the only thing that wasn’t was Baylor’s chances of landing a New Year’s Eve bowl game. Word started to trickle through the buses that a win next week against the Longhorns could still land them in the Sugar Bowl.
But first, they had to get over the sting from the fact that this game, and a chance to three-peat as conference champions, had just slipped away.
Sunday
In their previous forty seasons, the Dallas Cowboys had hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy as the best team in the NFL five different times. They’d made eight Super Bowls and won eighteen NFC East titles.
In that span, they’d also been one of the NFL’s worst teams in selected years, including a 1–15 mark in 1989, which followed a 3–13 campaign in 1988.
There had been ups and downs, but one thing had remained rather constant—at least since 1966: come 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, the Cowboys were always on television, always playing at home, and always taking center stage, just like America’s Team should for one of America’s most prestigious holidays.
The tailgating scene outside the stadium has a different smell on Thanksgiving Day. Sure, there might be some of the standard bratwurst and Texas barbecue going around, but many families, especially the ones who make this game a yearly tradition, go all the way with a complete Thanksgiving feast. The deep fryers come out, giving everyone a chance to share the flavor.
Something about having fried turkey, combined with the general festive spirit on Thanksgiving, will prompt tailgaters to occasionally pass out samples to their fellow fans—wearing Cowboys jerseys, of course—who are making their way up to the game.
For the majority of the country, families sit around the dining room table and enjoy a special dinner in the comfy confines of their homes. To thousands of Cowboys fans, Thanksgiving Day consists of portable chairs, paper plates, plastic forks, and tinfoil pans of mashed potatoes, casseroles, cranberries, and all of the other Turkey Day treats.
But inside the stadium, the atmosphere is just as electric. No matter the record, no matter the opponent, Thanksgiving Day always energizes the game. That was the case at the old Texas Stadium in Irving, and it hasn’t changed since the Cowboys moved over to their plush AT&T Stadium home in 2009.
This year, there was a little more buzz in the air, but it had less to do with the Panthers coming to town with an unscathed 10–0 record. The excitement centered on the Cowboys, despite the team’s dismal 3–7 mark. There was hope, and it rested on the shoulders of their quarterback. Tony Romo’s return from an eight-week layoff due to a broken collarbone stopped the team’s seven-game losing skid the Sunday before in Miami.
The only concern was how Romo would respond coming off a short week, having played just four days earlier. A year ago, Romo had wisely managed his surgically repaired back by taking off Wednesdays each week to rest his body. However, his worst game of the 2014 season occurred on Thanksgiving, when rest was not an option. Now, there was even less wiggle room for error.
Donning new uniforms for this week’s game, as part of the NFL’s Color Rush campaign, the Cowboys sported white jerseys and white pants, an outfit that seemed to be popular among the players. In a huddle of defensive backs just before kickoff, one of the players shouted, “We look good. We might as well play good!”
As it turned out, the Cowboys only looked good.
From the very start, the team’s worry over Romo’s rustiness was justified. He threw an interception on the first drive, which was returned for a touchdown. As disheartening as the pick-six was for the Cowboys, seeing wide receiver Dez Bryant fail to chase after Carolina’s Kurt Coleman might have been even worse. Bryant got locked up with the Panthers’ star cornerback, Josh Norman, on his route, and even though he saw the ball intercepted by Coleman, Bryant continued to jaw with Norman in front of Carolina’s bench, never attempting to make the tackle; and it could have been a possibility, considering Coleman raced back over to Bryant’s side of the field en route to the end zone.
Bryant and Norman would battle all day, with Norman getting the best of the matchup, holding Bryant to just two catches on eight targets. After the game he told reporters, “Hey, they need to get Dez’s seventy mil back,” referring to Bryant’s five-year, $70 million contract that he had signed before the season.
But it wasn’t just Bryant who struggled on offense. Romo threw another pick-six to Carolina’s Luke Kuechly, as the Panthers raced out to a 23–3 halftime advantage.
And even though the Cowboys actually cut into the Panthers’ lead, the second half got extremely worse. On the final play of the third quarter, blitzed by the still-attacking Panthers defense, Romo was hit by Carolina’s Thomas Davis, who drove the quarterback and his left shoulder into the ground.
Instantly, Romo knew.
This third time was no charm, as the quarterback heard and felt the same thing as before. His left collarbone, the same one he had broken in 2010 against the Giants and the same one he broke in Week 2 at Philadelphia, was again the source of excruciating pain.
“Not again?” Romo thought to himself. “This can’t be happening.”
But while he optimistically told reporters after the game that it was too early to speculate until an X-ray and CT scan were performed, Romo knew his season was likely over. And with that, it meant the Cowboys’ season was all but done as well.
Following the 33–14 loss, Romo stood with his left arm in a sling at the press conference podium and talked less about the injury and more about the first three quarters, where he admitted he “didn’t give our team a chance to win today. They depend on me to go out there and perform on a certain level. I cost our team today. And I have to live with that.”
After the game, Romo got a ride back home where his wife, Candice, their two sons, and other family members gathered around and ate … pizza. Of course.
The Romo household created its own tradition on Thursday nights after the Thanksgiving Day game, ordering pizza to keep things simple for Romo, who really just wanted to come home and re-watch the game he just played, win or lose. On Fridays is when the family does a more traditional Thanksgiving Day meal with the entire family.
Despite the loss, Romo stuck with tradition and cued up the tape yet again. But considering he threw three interceptions, two of which were returned for scores, his team lost by nineteen, and he was knocked out of the game for what was probably a season-ending injury to his left collarbone, nothing could get the bad taste out of his mouth.
Not even pizza.
Chapter 15
SURPRISE, SURPRISE
Friday
Every day that Jaydon McCullough walks down a rather quiet hallway to get to the coaching wing where his office resides, he is reminded of his school’s history.
And it’s not just the finer moments, the trophies that sit in a glass case marking the seven state championships, but also the numerous other hardware from playoff wins in the Regional and Area rounds.
Team accomplishments are the ultimate goal, but nothing happens without the individuals who have lost blood, sweat, and even tears for the Plano program. Because of that, the kids are honored in their own way as hundreds of framed 8×10 photos of each player McCullough and his staff have coached hang on both sides of the hallways.
If a player earns a varsity letter, he goes up on the wall. That includes standouts such as Rex Burkhead, whom McCullough considers the best player he’s ever coached in his twenty years at Plano. Burkhead is one of two Wildcats, along with lineman Alan Reuber, who has made it to the NFL since the 1970s.
But even the players who barely sniff the field during their time at Plano will get a picture on the wall. It’s just another way the coaches pay tribute to those who have put in the time, effort, and dedication for the maroon and white.
Now three weeks removed from the end of Plano’s schedule, McCullough was already looking ahead to the 2016 campaign. His 4–6 record kept him up at night and would likely do so until next season rolled around.
But even though his eyes were fixated on the future, McCullough hadn’t forgotten the present or the past. In every interview he did with the media, the head coach typically found a way to shift the focus from football or specific plays and steer the conversation toward the bigger picture.
“We’re trying to get these kids to be honorable men and to do things the right way when they leave here,” McCullough said. “Most of them aren’t going to play football after they’re done. We know that. They know that. Everything they do is a reflection of us, and I think that’s why we get into coaching. So we can help these young men grow into the best football players they can be, but more important, the best young men they can be.”
That’s why he talked to all of them about the importance of going to college. If they had the ability, opportunity, and desire to play football at the next level, that was a bonus.
Obviously, running back Brandon Stephens had been one of the highest recruits the Wildcats had ever had. His press conference back in early September saw him announce his intention to sign with Stanford, but there were rumblings starting that he might be wavering on that decision.
In the hallway, Stephens would tell his inquisitive classmates that Stanford was the choice, but quietly, and privately, he was pondering other options. The phone calls and the letters certainly didn’t stop, as schools such as Texas A&M, Alabama, UCLA, and Oklahoma, to which he actually had made an unofficial visit after the season, were creeping back into the picture.
When college coaches called to speak to McCullough or one of his assistants, the high school coaches would oftentimes turn into salesmen, trying desperately to convince their collegiate counterparts to accept their players, knowing the more kids they put on college rosters, the better it would look for the Wildcats program.
But McCullough didn’t have to sell any team on Stephens, or even offensive lineman Kadarius Smith, who had committed to SMU several weeks back. Some of his other seniors, though, were a different story. McCullough fielded a few calls from lower-level colleges asking about Isaiah Williams, a talented offensive lineman who suffered a season-ending knee injury back in August and never played a down. Defensive end Byron Tate, a running back in his junior year, was another player on the radar of a couple of Division III schools in Texas.
“You want your kids to get that opportunity,” McCullough said, “but you also have to be honest with the schools. They can see the tape, but they want to know about them, how they practice, what kind of kids they are, what kind of students they are.”
Ultimately, McCullough and his staff were going to do what they could to put their players in college, but once that happened, they were far from forgotten. As the college football schedule came to a close for 2015, several of the assistants continued to communicate with former Wildcats who were wrapping up their seasons at the next level.
Chris Fisher rarely missed a chance to reach out to players he once coached such as David Griffith, a linebacker who had gone on to the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Griffith was one of Plano’s best players in 2013, and he came back for a game against Allen during Monroe’s bye week in September.
During the 2015 season, Plano had ten former players in college uniforms, including Sam Tecklenburg, whom McCullough has said ranks among the top “two or three” players he’s coached at Plano. Tecklenburg was a redshirt freshman at Baylor, where he practiced all year as a tight end.
Several of the Plano coaches kept up with his progress during the year, as they did with other redshirting freshman, including Beau Hott (New Mexico) and Neema Behbahani (Texas A&M-Commerce). Both players made it back for Plano games in 2015.
Even though they may be a few years removed, the Wildcats staff will always be their “coaches.” When wide receiver Anthony Antwine, who graduated from Plano in 2013, made his first career start for Arkansas during the season against Ole Miss on national television, the Plano coaches quickly texted each other to spread the word.
And when former Plano quarterback Richard Lagow finished up his junior college stint at Cisco College and decided to transfer to the University of Indiana, Plano offensive coordinator, Joey Stone, was one of the first to know.
The coaches checked up on the injury status of former kicker John Cummings, who played at West Texas A&M, as well as linebacker Sam Morell after he suffered a knee injury at BYU. Although he was five years removed from the Plano program, when Kobie Douglas was named senior captain at Incarnate Word in San Antonio, word reached the Wildcats staff in a hurry.
And it went further than the kids who were playing football. Coach Fisher traded texts with Brooks Panhans during the season, checking in with the former Plano quarterback wh
o was then a student at Cornell University, and with Mitch Hansen, who had decided to focus on baseball during his final year and was eventually a second-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The players who come through Plano are immediate members of the school’s family. They all come and go, but they are never forgotten.
There’s a big hallway full of pictures to make sure of that.
Saturday
In professional baseball, every team wants to beat the New York Yankees. In the NBA, beating the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Knicks holds the same sway. And in the world of professional football, of course, the Dallas Cowboys always get everyone’s best shot.
It goes with the territory of being among the most prestigious, rich-in-history franchises. Along the way, they’ve developed both love and hatred among fans. Even in down seasons for those storied teams, the thrill of beating them never seems to get old for their opponents.
In college football, especially in the Lone Star State, that team is the Texas Longhorns. For so many years, the Longhorns ruled the state when it came to football. In some regards, they still are viewed as the premier football program in Texas, despite a few struggling seasons that have failed to meet the always sky-high expectations for the school’s fan base.
Before Art Briles arrived on campus in 2008, Baylor fans had to go back to the Grant Teaff–coached days of the 1970s and 1980s to recall some of their favorite moments. Ask a team historian to name a few memorable games, and a 50–7 win in 1989 always comes to mind. Or the 1978 tilt when Teaff inspired his players with a pregame speech that included his putting a live worm in his mouth to get their attention. The Baylor players exploded out of the locker room and won the game, 38–14.
And you guessed it, both of those victories occurred against Texas.
In 2015, the Longhorns were not going to a bowl, sitting with just a 4–7 record as they entered their final contest of the season. For Texas, traveling to Waco, which is just an hour north of Austin, was the closest the team would get to a real bowl game.