In the Football Team office, Griff confronted B2 about his knee. This was not easy to do, because in the bad old days he had watched how Ken Stabler endured and minimized knee injuries and had done the same himself. But there was a difference between a mature player doing this at that time and a college athlete risking his future health. "Did you have that knee x-rayed?" he asked B2.

"It is not that bad," B2 responded. Coach Griff McGuire picked up the phone, called the Huygens Medical Center; handed the phone to B2; watched B2 limp out of his office on his way to the Medical Center.

There was nothing else Griff could do. He headed to the Faculty Club, where Durango had invited him for lunch.

There were only two games left in the season: this Saturday, the Sunnyvale Racs, and on Saturday November 12, a home game with the El Dorado Polytech Engineers. Beating Sunnyvale was likely, but El Dorado Poly was led on the football field by a tough Black coach with an engineering PhD from MIT. That was what Griff thought Durango -- Huygens Black President and tough Offensive Line coach with a physics degree from Cal -- wanted to talk about. Durango and the Polytech coach were off field friends, but the last game of the season was going to be one hell of a competitive match for STEM school football glory.

However, El Dorado Poly only led into what Durango wanted to talk about. "It is possible that El Dorado will beat us this year, but this is the only year that this will happen. It is time", Durango informed him -- after they placed their orders of steak sandwiches and beer -- "to talk about your role in Spring scouting."

This has not been a good day, Griff thought to himself.

arrow Durango's low effort recruiting success resulted from building bonds with STEM teachers in Football-oriented schools. That worked well, but the presence of the Head Coach would now be expected. The team had a winning record; letters from interested students would begin to cross his desk in January. And although Griff was aware that Spring scouting of Juniors was important for D3 schools, with dismay he remembered that Spring scouting was in the contract he had signed.