Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 60: War of Words
JuJu Smith-Schuster, wide receiver, junior, is currently the biggest star on the Trojans.

Last season, Trojan quarterback Cody Kessler performed poorly, and the team, which started with offense, always found it difficult to get out of the game. This was also the core reason for the team's poor performance. During the offseason, offensive coordinator Hayden passed the team interview and became the head coach.

Despite this, with the quarterback not doing well, Shuster, nicknamed "Juju", still performed well and turned the situation around several times by himself. He received the ball for 1,400 yards and scored ten touchdowns this season. He became the only bright spot worth noting among the Trojans who were in a slump.

This year, Kessler has turned professional and was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 90th pick in the third round. The Trojans have a brand new quarterback.

Sam-Darnold, who enrolled last year but redshirted.

Redshirt is a special status in the NCAA.

Normally, college athletes are eligible to play four seasons of collegiate athletics, but they can choose to redshirt one year while on campus, extending their college athletic career to five years.

During the redshirt year, players can attend classes at the university, participate in training, and even sit on the sidelines during games, but they cannot play for the team.

Thanks to the existence of redshirts, a "fifth-year senior" phenomenon has emerged in American universities.

There are many reasons for choosing a red shirt, the most important of which is to take a year off to focus on improving one's own strength and then strive for a starting position, which is particularly common in football.

Because the power confrontation and body collision obviously rise to a higher level, players can use the redshirt year to strengthen their physique; at the same time, because the complexity of football tactics is much more complicated than that of high school, players need time to adapt to different ways of playing. After all, there is no redshirt exception in professional leagues.

It is worth mentioning that if a redshirt player appears in any game during the season, his redshirt eligibility will automatically expire, without exception.

The status of a redshirt player is assigned by the head coach, but it will not be confirmed by the NCAA until the end of the season.

What do you mean?
The head coach can give a player red shirt status based on his own judgment, but it does not mean that the player will not play during the season. If a player grows faster than expected in training, or the team suffers serious and widespread injuries, the head coach can cancel the player's red shirt status and allow him to play in the remaining games of the season.

Once the player appears in the game, he will automatically give up his red shirt qualification for this season, even for one round or one second, there are no exceptions.

Therefore, the redshirt eligibility will not be confirmed until the end of the season when the NCAA confirms that the player has not appeared in any games.

In addition, the most common injury red shirt is a special case:
If a player misses the entire season or most of the season due to a serious injury, as long as his playing time is less than 30%, the head coach can still apply for a red shirt for him to ensure that the player can win another year of opportunity.

Usually, the so-called redshirt-freshmen refers to a sophomore who is playing for the school for the first time. He chooses to wear a redshirt in his freshman season, trains with the team for a season, and waits to grow up before officially representing the school in the sophomore season.

Sam Darnold is the redshirt freshman.

Last year, the Trojans recruited Darnold as a linebacker, but they discovered Darnold's potential in training camp, so they changed him to quarterback, became a redshirt player, and served as the third quarterback behind the two quarterbacks. He learned for a whole year, and this year he finally took over the responsibility of the main quarterback.

Including Hayden, the Trojans are full of confidence. They believe that Darnold undoubtedly has the ability of a first-round pick, and it would not be surprising to even become the No. 1 pick.

This is also the source of Zhu Zhu’s confidence.

Look, last season, with Kessler delivering the ammunition, Zhu Zhu completed a thousand-yard season entirely by relying on his personal ability; now that the quarterback has been upgraded, the ammunition is more accurate and more sufficient. As the Trojans' number one wide receiver, Zhu Zhu is confident that he will dedicate an even better and more exciting season.

Maybe, the first 2,000-yard season by a wide receiver in NFL and NCAA history?

Zhu Zhu’s confidence has reached the sky, but what is the result?
Not only did the news media swarm around an unknown running back like flies, but even his own coach was so cautious?
Zhu Zhu really wanted to shake Hayden hard: Coach, wake up, wake up! You have two cosmic superstars, Darnold and me, please rise up, okay?
"We will win the game." Zhu Zhu's eyes were full of confidence, almost swallowing Samantha alive. Samantha didn't buy it, "You are facing the defending champion."

Zhu Zhu laughed directly, "Without Derrick Henry, they are nothing."

Samantha blinked. "But they have a great new running back now who can..."

Zhu Zhu exploded impatiently, "Are you talking about that clown? Come on, this is a smokescreen, isn't it obvious? It's just a warm-up match, and you're talking about making a breakthrough? If that's the way to make a breakthrough, then the NCAA is full of superstars now. Are superstars still valuable?"

"Wake up, hey, wake up!"

"This is just hype. The clown is just a puppet, Pinocchio. No one cares about him. He is just a means for the Red Tide to divert attention. A rookie who just started playing football this year, a complete layman, becomes the savior. Haha, do you think this is a superhero movie?"

“That must be DC, not Marvel, hahahaha.”

Zhu Zhu is very arrogant and keeps spewing trash talk.

Samantha remained patient, "But, the same thing happened with Sam Darnold. A redshirt freshman who never practiced quarterbacking. How is he different from Levi."

Zhu Zhu burst out laughing: Don’t hit people in the face, okay?
His face instantly fell, and he was no longer in the mood to joke. "Let me tell you, the game will prove everything. We will show that guy his true colors. We will let that guy experience what real football is. We will win the game."

"Not only will we win, we will crush them."

"Do you understand? Crush!"

Samantha had just hit a wall with the Crimson Tide, but now she stood in front of Zhu Zhu and finally regained her dignity as a journalist. "Are you talking about facing the Crimson Tide defense that was ranked first in the country last year?"

The Trojans are good at offense, and the Crimson Tide are good at defense.

Like that warm-up match, this was a contradictory match.

Zhu Zhu's face turned purple and he looked like he might explode at any moment. After all, he was still young. No matter how arrogant he was, he was only eighteen years old. He was still a child. "Yes, yes, yes. We will win."

"We will win."

"We're going to win! Aaaaahhh!"

And then... nothing happened. Zhu Zhu turned around and left, his eyes red and his mouth full of foul language. He walked towards the court swearing all the way, and his beautiful dreadlocks looked like they were on fire.

Samantha smiled professionally and said to the camera, "The Trojans are determined to win."

Today is the third update. Dear book friends, there is less than a week left before the end of the new book period, and we are continuing to sprint in the final stage! The update rules for the release are as follows: Alliance leader, 10,000 words; Helmsman, 1,000 words; Hall Master, 2,000 words. For every 10,000 reward, 1,000 words will be updated, and so on. For every 100 monthly tickets, 1,000 words will be updated. Here, the young man sincerely thanks all the book friends for their support, thank you all!

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(End of this chapter)