He got out and stretched his knee, then opened her door. Off-road to the beach, it was a sunny fall morning in a tree-lined meadow. Soon, there was a question of whether or not they would make it to the beach, but it was lunchtime; the sandwich shop was in Santa Cruz; and Griff knew perfectly well what was in the Coaches’ playbook for this date.

"In the third quarter", he began, as they slowed down through the small town of Boulder Creek, "it was apparent that we've got damn good defense with guys like Toi Cook, Dave Wyman, Walt Harris, Brad Humphreys; we'd have to go pretty slowly through town to name them all before we're on the open road again."