Last Chance U (2016–…): Season 2, Episode 2 - Football Saved My Life - full transcript
De'Andre gears up for his first game since he was kicked out of Florida State. Isaiah and his brother open up about their difficult childhood.
[Crowder] EMCC trails by two, 27-25.
Now here comes EMCC to attempt
the two-point conversion.
Miller back to pass, backside pressure.
Throws as he's hit,
and it's knocked away at the goal line.
And EMCC is gonna drop game one.
But what a valiant effort.
With only 32 players,
all freshmen,
except for some transfer sophomores.
They came up just a bit short, 27-25.
They'll take that all day long.
These guys fought valiantly...
[indistinct chatter]
[Wood] Hey, hey, hey!
Listen up! Whoa! Listen up!
Make sure you're congratulating these
when they get back now.
They played their tail off.
You know they did.
Thirty guys, that's all we had!
Thirty guys, all we--
[De'Andre] Guys, guys, guys, guys!
Listen up! Listen up!
What happened with it, it's done.
We can't do nothing about it.
Now we on to Gulf Coast.
When the freshmen get back, cheer 'em on.
Now it's our time to take over.
It's nobody's fault but our self.
Now, let's take it from there.
Let's go.
[marching band playing]
[inaudible]
[man 1] When you see a guy
ball up his fist and punch a woman,
it is hard to wrap your mind around,
"Hey, let's give this guy another chance."
[Abigail Husty] It definitely impacted
my life in a negative way,
but I'm moving
towards the correct direction.
So, hopefully that'll help.
[chuckles nervously]
[man 2] I know that he reached out
to some other FBS schools and...
and they could not take him.
Not that they didn't want him as a player,
but just because of the reaction
they would get.
Why didn't you walk away?
A lot of people wondering,
why wouldn't you walk away
from an incident like that?
[man 1] This was an assault on a woman.
If you're the head coach
at East Mississippi--
-[man 3] He's not playing for me.
-[man 1] You're not taking him!
[Stephen A. Smith] It's inexcusable.
Striking that woman, he should be ashamed.
He was on Good Morning America,
talking to Michael Strahan.
You made some mistakes,
whatever the case may be.
And I'm not trying to say
that your life should be over,
and it should be ruined.
But there's a price that needs to be paid
because the message has to be sent.
[man 4] You have to draw a line.
You have to say no.
You're not playing here
if you've got that in your past.
It is a career-ender, and it needs to be.
He shouldn't be there.
[Buddy] He talking about, you know,
we're gonna be renamed
the East Mississippi Counselors...
bugged the hell outta me.
He has no idea about De'Andre Johnson.
-He has no idea what we've planned...
-[Crowder on phone] Absolutely.
...to help that kid.
I ain't stupid. I mean, you know?
I know what the hell I'm doing.
You know, give me...
You know, take a chill pill.
You know, we have a vessel here
that we have to use.
-[Crowder] Absolutely. Which is fine.
-And if...
he doesn't play for you,
he's gonna play for somebody else.
-[Crowder] Right.
-You better find a way
to help him and help you
at the same time, so...
[Crowder] He deserves a second chance.
I mean, my gosh,
-it's not like he committed murder--
-[Buddy] Well, he's...
he's gonna get a second chance
and he's gonna pay his penance.
And he's gonna do the things
that he needs to do.
And seek counseling.
And, you know... And for anger...
He's taking an anger management class.
You know, he's working
in a battered women's shelter.
Don't sit out there
and start tweeting stuff,
trying to crucify me or our program,
because I...
Listen, I'm a vindictive son of a gun now.
You know, let's be real,
if that cat wasn't
a really good football player,
we wouldn't be talking to him, you know?
But if he weren't
a really good football player,
his ordeal wouldn't be making
front page of the Sporting News.
What people think of me
is not the big thing, um...
It really isn't,
'cause it doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is the scrutiny
that the school's put under.
[Trickett] When the incident happened,
we called around.
My father coaches at Florida State.
I played there.
Everyone was shocked at what happened.
They said, honestly,
since he's gotten there,
they've never had a problem with it
and then there was just one incident,
when he's out one night.
I'm sure alcohol was involved.
That doesn't make it better or anything,
but made a bad decision.
Horrible decision.
[Wagner] Some teachers were saying, wait,
you know, we admitted this...
You know, this kid's here?
He's gonna sit in my class?
You know, I think that's unfortunate.
I get it.
But I think it's unfortunate for the kid
because, you know, this is his life.
And he made a mistake, a big one,
and it was documented
for the world to see.
But we've all made mistakes.
This is not our first rodeo
on taking a kid that's been kicked out
of a place and rehabilitating him.
So, I think we know how to do this.
I mean, what is the alternative to that?
He can't ever go to school?
He can't get an education now
because when he was 17 years old,
he made a mistake at a bar?
I mean, I just felt like
he deserves an opportunity.
So, until he proves differently to me,
you know, I'm gonna treat him
just like I would treat any of 'em.
I mean, he's just...
He's a college football player, who...
is looking for an opportunity
and I'm prepared to help him get there.
[indistinct chatter on phone]
[De'Andre] What take you so long
to answer?
Ain't nothin'.
On my way to the training room.
[chatter on phone]
Say wassup, I'm doing great, you know.
I'm feeling good.
Throwing... throwing really good.
Everything's good.
[man] Just wanted to, you know,
remind you that you're in a competition
and, you know, make sure that,
you know,
you embrace that competition.
You know...
Continue to show
that you're the alpha dog out there
and just make sure
that they can see your work ethic.
The biggest thing for me was, like,
getting back in the groove, you know?
'Cause I've been out for, like, what?
-Two seasons.
-A whole year.
Yeah, a whole year, pretty much.
You know, so the biggest thing was
finding my rhythm back
and I got it now, though.
This gonna be a good season.
[players speaking indistinctly]
[coach] Keep running, keep running.
[Vijay] Oh! My fault.
[Trickett] De'Andre, get up. De'Andre!
[De'Andre] It's been two years
since I've played.
I feel anxious.
I feel nervous. I feel excited.
I came from a Division I
and I could've easily played last year.
But I had to sit out.
-[speaking indistinctly]
-[De'Andre] I couldn't practice.
I feel eager to get back out there
and prove people wrong.
Um, that I'm worthy of being a quarterback
at the next level,
that the gift that God gave me
has never left me.
[Wood] Ball.
Good.
Everybody switch. Good.
[Crowder] Going into the second week
of this season, you get De'Andre Johnson,
a guy that's a transfer from Florida State
who has all the talent in the world.
Look at his high school numbers.
You know he's gonna be
that next great quarterback
like a Chad Kelly for EMCC.
He can lead this offense.
And you add in Isaiah Wright
who is a promising tailback,
then things look good.
But you have no margin for error now,
if you wanna play
for a national championship.
[laughing]
[grunting]
[both speaking indistinctly]
Isaiah, he's a...
he's a tremendous athlete.
I think he's a guy that, when you see him
one-on-one in the open field,
he's pretty phenomenal.
He's always got something going.
He's always excited about something.
Uh, laughing, he's a very charismatic kid.
Uh... He's just... he's a good kid.
-[Wood] Good, good, good.
-I got sweat in my eyes.
Okay, I got you.
Does that get it?
-It's just... [chuckles]
-[yells playfully]
[Wood] Like having kids.
You get that rag out
and you just wipe that face.
Here we go, here we go.
Right, south, 92-Y.
Let's go, let's go!
We're wasting reps. Let's go.
Get down.
[Buddy] The thing about Isaiah is,
he's a special athlete, you know.
You can tell there's a difference
between him and everybody else
that's on the field.
He has no idea how good he can be.
Not that he isn't now, he is now.
But he can be very special
on a different level.
[indistinct chatter]
[Milner] When you lose one game,
you're still in the running.
Losing two, now that's a different story.
But if they run the table, they win out,
they win the state championship,
well, then, then you start thinking, okay,
well, that one loss was by two points,
it was with their freshmen, you know.
This is clearly a dominating team.
They should be
in the national championship.
-[indistinct chatter]
-All right, listen up. Hey!
Let me say this,
the guys that were out there playing,
um, very proud of you, again.
I mean, when you got a defensive tackle
playing offensive guard,
you're having to, say, block that guy?
I mean, that's tough, all right?
But as a team, now,
this is gonna be a lot of fun.
I felt more relaxed today than ever,
especially for a Gulf Coast game,
because we're gonna have our whole group.
Our family together.
Here's what I want you to do.
From this day forward,
you work to get better.
Always keep that in the back of the mind.
That, "I've got to learn and get better."
I got a newfound respect for Coach Wood
and the other offensive coaches
because y'all been on the sideline
with me before.
I'm constantly, you know,
into something, huh?
Constantly into something.
Well, that helped me
change a little bit because now I...
Thursday night, I could've done
with somebody in my ear
the way I'm in their ear.
We're all about business now.
You know what you gotta do,
you know what's ahead of you.
Okay?
I have no doubt, I have zero doubt...
that we'll get accomplished
what we need to.
The pressure of being
the head coach is that...
everything, um...
that happens with your program,
good, bad... you know, otherwise,
always falls on you.
And there's been a lot of good,
and with the good comes the praise
and then with the bad comes the scorn,
and you can't get too high
and you can't get too low,
and if you do,
it becomes really hard to deal with.
You're banking your future on
what 17, 18, 19-year-old guys do.
How I take care of my family
depends on these guys,
and you wanna push 'em
in every different facet and realm
that you possibly can
so that they'll perform,
and sometimes you lose track of, uh...
of what you're there for.
You're not there to make sure
you get your utility bill paid, you know?
If you do it right...
if you do it right, it'll, uh...
good things'll happen.
Okay, good, good.
Come back, come back, come back.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry.
Come on, come on.
Come on, come on. Watch me!
Move over. Slide over, now-- Hey!
Linebackers, slide over!
Four-two, okay?
Pull your head outta your butt.
Let's go. Twenty-two.
Good coaches,
they put so much pressure on themselves.
Set, hit! Play violently.
Play violently. Let's go!
[whistle blows]
And then you throw in
a national championship or two.
Snatch him!
[Davis] There's no way you can understand
the pressure of that.
It's hard to win one,
much less three in a row.
[Buddy] If you don't listen,
we're gonna get our ass beat this week.
You combo this! You gotta tell him.
Quit being cute and start working.
People think that it's a game,
but it's a business.
If he don't win,
what's gonna happen to him?
He gonna get fired.
[Buddy] I gotta be all in! All in.
I can't be halfway.
Okay? If that happens, we're...
Good things... It's gonna be great, okay?
It's gonna be great. And it will be.
[Lauren Stephens]
It's weird to see him that way
'cause he's not the same at home,
but he does that because
he's serving two different people groups.
He's serving his family
and then serving his players, so...
he's doing what he has to do here
to get the job done.
You're doing good.
[Buddy snickers]
As far as I can tell.
[Buddy chuckles]
Hey, I haven't dropped no bad words yet,
so it's all good.
-[laughing]
-I love you.
-[Buddy] I love you, so much.
-Bye.
-See you later.
-All right.
[Lauren] It was hard to watch my dad.
Something that he took so seriously,
kind of go to shambles and him not have
really a lot of control over it.
Hey, be careful going back.
Call your mother.
[Lauren] When it comes
to people attacking you on Facebook
and people asking me
at school all the time
or talking about my dad's foul mouth.
That's not an easy thing to do
because I'm not ashamed of my dad
and I love him so much, no matter what.
He has been really vulnerable
and open with us about his struggles
and the things that he needs to change
in his life.
But at the end of the day,
it's not about what happened last season,
but it's about your response to it
and how...
What you take away from it.
[sighing] So...
[car horn honking]
[coach] You want to feed it through.
Don't let that ball die,
don't let that ball...
[player 1] They beat half our team.
-[Tim] They barely beat us.
-Barely beat y'all.
So, add 'bout 30 more points to that.
No, forget 30. Add 'bout 40.
[Wood] Bump out. Bump out.
All right, bump over.
Just a hair, right there.
Good, right here.
I thought they did really well.
I was real pleased with 'em.
You put 'em out there with really
no starting experience from anybody.
Even the guys that had dropped down
from senior colleges,
but to see how they performed
and the way they pushed through it.
Real, real proud of 'em. So...
We were excited about being back,
that's for sure.
[Kam] Son, them niggas was weak ass, bro.
I can't believe we lost to them.
[Vijay] They was weak as fuck, bro.
So, I hope that...
They not even gonna make the playoffs.
That's... that's the sad thing, son.
So we not even gonna get
to get our revenge, bro.
[Vijay] What you wearing?
-Huh?
-What you wearing, bro?
-Nigga, I got shorts on.
-What you got goin' on?
[chuckling]
What the fuck you got goin' on, bro?
[laughs]
He still at Penn State.
And then, look how he got
his shorts rolled up.
-I hate pulling them--
-Look at him.
[players laughing]
[Williams] Kam played unexpectedly well.
Kam played like
a dominant interior lineman
and I told him
that I was proud of him for it.
So hopefully by the end of the season,
whenever that is, you know,
he'll be one of the top interior tackles
in junior colleges in the country.
[Kam] Coach Williams a good coach.
He a good coach.
-Oh, yeah.
-For real.
-He know what he talking about.
-He do, son.
Like... [stammers] he helped
my game so much, that I'm like...
Yes, as far as, like,
pass rushing and stuff?
I feel like I can ask him anything
and he got answers, you know what I mean?
Chauncey must've took
a lot of classes at Georgia.
Chauncey's smart as fuck, bro.
-I ain't know that.
-[chuckles]
Son, I'm trying to tell you.
That dude got, like, a 3,8, bro.
-[chuckling]
-He got a 3,8?
Yes, son. That nigga is smart.
-[player] It's over.
-[Kam] They...
They wanted me and him to be roommates.
I ain't gonna say my GPA.
[both chuckle]
[indistinct chatter]
[Kam] Man, Chauncey the shoe king.
The snack king. [laughing]
Oh, yeah, I got all the Js.
Chauncey got all the snacks,
all the shoes.
[Chauncey] Bro, it's just 'cause my mama
had just came up here, bro.
[player] Yeah, you do got a lot of snacks.
[Chauncey] My mama just came up here.
[Kam] Lemme get one of them jawns,
Chauncey.
[Chauncey] If I'm eating my things...
If I wake up in the morning
and it's gone...
and it's over on the trash
and I wake up and say,
"Kam, did you eat my stuff?"
"Yeah, I didn't eat all of it."
"Why is it gone?
Why is there nothing in the bag?
Who gave you the go-ahead
to eat my stuff while I'm asleep?"
If I would have punched him
in the face while he was asleep,
it would have been my fault.
[Kam] I don't give a fuck
what you do, Chauncey.
-I don't ask you for shit.
-[Wagner shushing]
Stop. Kam.
You should not eat his food
without asking.
-I asked him.
-That's like saying--
-Did he say no?
-[laughing]
See, I don't do that one-way shit.
When I got food, or bags of chips,
you know what I mean?
I be like, "Oh! Go ahead, nigga."
-This man can't live without--
-So, I don't give a fuck
what this nigga talkin' 'bout.
Rodney has witnessed
this nigga takin' my Doritos.
[Wagner shushing] Okay,
we're gonna clean up our language.
This man got a whole tank top on,
I'm like, "Why this shit so tight on him?"
-You know?
-[Kam laughing]
I mean, what the hell? Sorry.
I'm looking at my tank top, like,
"I know that shit ain't mine."
Let me look at the tag.
So, I look at it like...
"I know this can't be mine."
I'm finna hit this man
in his mouth and shit.
I said, "If you don't take
my tank top off,
I'm gonna hit you in your goddamn face."
-He think we brothers?
-Yes.
-No!
-Brothers.
We don't wear the same clothes.
Me and him are two different people.
Look at the stuff he wear
and the stuff I wear.
He's nasty. I'm not.
You talking about dirty.
You wear the same hoodie every day.
-What the fuck are you, a pumpkin?
-[Wagner] Okay.
We're gonna be nice to each other.
You took your toothbrush
and wipe your shoes with it.
-What are you talking about?
-I wa--
"I wa..."
What the hell you talking about?
-[Kam] I use my old toothbrush.
-Be the bigger person.
Don't do it to yourself out here.
I'm your roommate.
-I used my old toothbrush.
-I'm your roommate.
You the same person say you wash
your clothes every Tuesday,
but them bitches dirty as hell.
-[Kam] So I have this shoe toothbrush--
-Kam...
Don't do this to yourself,
'cause they come in the room.
-[Kam] I don't got...
-[Chauncey] Don't do it to yourself.
-[Kam] They can come to the room!
-Shh!
[Kam] They can come!
I'll show 'em my shoe toothbrush.
-[Chauncey] You got history.
-[Wagner] Look.
Stop. Time out.
From this moment forward,
if you can't say something nice,
don't say it at all.
[Kam] But the moral to that story is--
Uh! Everybody.
[player] What's the moral to the story?
Chauncey's a bitch, 'cause I take his shit
and he don't do shit.
[Chauncey] I hope East Mississippi
give you more gear,
'cause you gonna be here three more years.
You a dumbass. [chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
[player] Ready, set!
[coach] Good.
[clapping]
-You want some water?
-[De'Andre] Yeah.
How was the drive?
It was nice, man. Just, man, shoot.
I got to make sure
you don't run out of gas around here.
[Earl Johnson]
When he went to high school,
De'Andre lead them to the Florida
state championship as a freshman.
They went 14-0.
And he had one regular season
triple overtime loss
throughout his whole career.
He beat the whole Jacksonville
for four years straight.
I mean, De'Andre always wanted
to play at Florida State.
De'Andre idolized Jimbo Fisher.
'Cause he knew that Coach Fisher would
make him into the quarterback
that he wanted to be.
You know, we don't...
we don't raise De'Andre to...
to hit anybody under any circumstances,
you know.
-Under any circumstances.
-Not even a play fight.
But at the end of the day...
right is right and wrong is wrong.
And he was wrong.
[player grunts]
[Trickett] Couple more. Couple more.
Get that core loose.
[Pamela] I still have a hard time
talking about it.
It's just...
I don't know. My heart just went out.
[stammers] Just dropped.
It just totally dropped.
It's just, like, I couldn't breathe.
Couldn't understand.
It's just... It's a surprise.
Still a surprise.
Still have a hard time... you know, but...
-[Pamela] I cry.
-[Michael Strahan] Mm-hmm.
I just cried. I cried for three days.
I still cry.
'Cause I don't teach my kids
to raise their hand.
And for this just to happen... I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
What did you say to De'Andre?
[sighs deeply]
I wanted to jump through the phone...
and wring his neck.
That was probably, like... [sighs]
[stammers] It was a bad day.
It was a bad day, and, um...
-And it's still a bad day.
-It's still a bad day.
Still a bad day.
[Trickett] There we go, there we go.
[Earl] I think he, maybe, had...
thought that...
hoped that it was gonna go away.
Because when that situation happened,
he didn't call us right away.
[voice breaking]
Because, uh, I understand... why.
Because I know he didn't wanna hurt us.
But not that I could have fixed it,
but if you let us know, you know,
so we could be, you know...
Let your parents know
so that they can help you,
'cause at the end of the day,
those are gonna be the ones
that's gonna be there for you,
is your parents.
No matter what you do, you're never gonna
disappoint your parents.
Your parents gonna love you
unconditionally.
[Earl] Amen.
[De'Andre] What they say is,
it takes a village to raise a child.
Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends,
coaches, all believin' in you.
You know, all saying, you know,
"Be like De'Andre."
You know, "Follow his footsteps."
You know, to where, when that happened,
"Don't be like De'Andre."
You know,
"Don't make that mistake he made."
"Be better than him."
So it has to... That was the most
just disappointing part about that.
I made a mistake.
I made a choice, this what happens.
What I did was unacceptable.
But it's not who I am.
That's not what define me.
Everybody makes mistakes.
[De'Andre] Hut!
I don't dwell on the past.
You know, I don't care for that.
I'm all about the future.
Ready, set!
You put diamond in pressure,
you know, what happen?
[panting] Diamond'll come out, baby,
no matter what.
-[rap music playing]
-Comeback gonna be epic.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[players grunting]
[Crime Mob's "Knuck If You Buck" playing]
[players rapping along indistinctly]
♪ So if a nigga come
And run they mouth just like a ho ♪
♪ Punch him dead up in his nose ♪
♪ And stomp his ass
Down to the floor ♪
♪ Yeah, we knucking
And bucking ♪
♪ And ready to fight ♪
♪ I betcha ♪
♪ Acting a fool ♪
♪ I wish a hater would get crunk
Up on this crime mob crew ♪
♪ Now enough is enough, boy ♪
♪ Rough and get stuffed, boy ♪
♪ Luck is a must, boy
Knuck if you buck, boy ♪
♪ Knuck if you buck ♪
[Buddy] I ain't got nothing for you.
There's a lot of stuff
pent up inside of us.
We gonna take four quarters
to get rid of all of it, understand?
-[players] Yes, sir.
-Touch somebody.
♪ Knuck if you buck, boy
Knuck if you buck ♪
[Crowder] Hey, good evening
and welcome to AL May Memorial Stadium
on the campus of
Gulf Coast Community College.
EMCC with its loss last week
fell to number 11.
The Lions have got a ladder to climb
in the 2016 season.
And now we're gonna see De'Andre Johnson
in his first snap for EMCC.
♪ Knuck if you buck, boy ♪
[Wood] 23-Lock, hitch. 23-Lock.
[De'Andre] 23-Lock.
23-Lock. Rip, motion, rip! Hut!
[Crowder] The snap to Johnson.
Johnson, back to pass, surveys the field,
now steps up, tucks it.
Gonna keep it himself.
Bounces to the outside.
Ball's gonna be loose
and I think Gulf Coast has it.
[Wood] He's down!
-[Buddy] Oh, no, he's down!
-[Wood] He's down!
You gotta be kiddin' me!
[player 1] He was down.
The line was there.
[Glen Beard] He had hit the ground
and it was rolling over.
There was no doubt that the ball was down.
[Crowder] So it will be a turnover,
and Mississippi Gulf Coast
is gonna have it at their own 41-yard line
moving right to left
and EMCC can ill afford to go on the road
and turn the football over.
I gotta protect it when I scramble.
You were down, but they're...
If it's close, they're gonna give it
to 'em, that's the way it is.
You're away on the road.
So I got to make sure
I'm puttin' the ball away.
[Crowder]
De'Andre Johnson is... [chuckles]
a little frustrated and confused
by that one, as am I.
That's on me, y'all.
I gotta play better. I got to play better.
[Trickett] You have anybody around you?
No, I just rushed that shot,
I got to play better.
-Put it away!
-[De'Andre] Yeah.
[Wood] All right, here we go!
We gotta have a drive.
[Winfield] You'd love to see
that offense find its rhythm,
'cause that's really
what defines this team.
-[Crowder] Play action for Johnson.
-[Earl] Move!
[Crowder] Johnson fires down
the left sideline.
Intercepted at the 19-yard line.
Twenty-five, 30,
angles near side to the 40.
[Wood] Gave it right back to 'em.
[Crowder] He stepped in front
of that pass,
grabbed it, and brought it
all the way back to the EMCC 48.
[Winfield] Ball underthrown a little bit.
[Beard] You cannot underthrow
the vertical routes.
[De'Andre] Fuck, man.
[Crowder] Before you get frustrated
with De'Andre Johnson,
understand this is his first
collegiate action.
[Wood] Settle down and play.
I'm ready to jump out of my skin
to get after it, too,
but we got to do what we do.
If it's not there, we don't throw it.
[Winfield] The big thing
is for Johnson not to feel
like he has to do too much.
He has a lot of weapons around him.
You've got Isaiah Wright,
you've got a lot of players.
He hasn't got to score 90 points
on one play.
[player 1] Hey, defense. Hey!
-Playmaking time.
-[player 2] Let's get it.
[Winfield] EMCC got really good play
from the defensive front last week.
Let's see if they control the line
this way.
[Crowder] Back to pass.
Pressure, coming from all areas
and it's thrown over the middle,
intercepted by EMCC!
The Lions have it at the 15
and they're gonna rumble around the 20.
-It's a big boy.
-[Ed Holly] Yes!
[Winfield] Kam Carter
just got his hands up.
[Ed Holly] Hold it, hold it. Fuck yes!
Let's go, Kam!
[laughs]
-[player] Let's go!
-[Wood] That's what I'm talking about.
[Williams] Great job, baby.
Good job, 95! Good job!
We fucking eating 'em up.
We fucking eating 'em up.
They cannot play with you.
They cannot play with you.
Do you understand that?
They cannot play with you.
Let's, hey...
Get this juice going. Let's go.
[Crowder] We've had a turnover
on every series so far.
Just give me three seconds.
Then we good.
We good.
Hold the ball! Please hold the ball!
If it come out on the ground,
it's called a fumble.
[Winfield] Both teams
failing to get a lot done offensively.
[Crowder] Johnson snaps it.
Back to pass.
[spectator] Throw it, throw it!
[Crowder] Steps up, rolls to the right.
-[spectator] There it is.
-[Crowder] Fires it towards the end zone,
has a man and...
It's caught! Touchdown!
[Wood] Yes! Yes! Yes!
[Crowder]
He makes a great catch right there.
[crowd cheering]
[De'Andre] Great job, baby.
Look at you, boy. Good job.
[Crowder] That's the first touchdown pass
of De'Andre Johnson's career here at EMCC.
-First college touchdown. Good.
-[De'Andre] That's how you bounce back.
-Good, good, good.
-[De'Andre] That's how we bounce back.
[De'Andre] Hey, you and...
That was a catch.
We did our job. That's how we bounce back.
Great job last time.
Let us build from this, keep it going!
Getting it now. Starting to churn.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
[Crowder] Back to pass is Johnson,
has all day. Shifts to his right.
Pump fakes a couple of times.
Keeps it himself.
He's got the first down
and more down the far sideline.
Oh, my goodness, is he fast.
-[Buddy] Great job.
-[Earl] Yeah! Whoo-hoo!
First down! First down!
[Crowder] Snap to Johnson.
Fires it over the middle.
Caught by Brooks Shannon.
Ten, five, touchdown!
-EMCC from 22 yards out.
-[crowd cheering]
[Beard] De'Andre Johnson and
the Lions keep marching down the field.
[Crowder] And they leave it
with Wright and he fumbles the football.
That's gonna be Gulf Coast football.
As soon as he was handed the ball off,
wasn't hit. Just dropped it, Glen.
It's been a turnover fest
here in the first half.
-[Wood] What happened?
-[De'Andre] Isaiah dropped it.
[Beard] That's right.
Just alligator-armed it
and then dropped the football.
Guys, we're running out of toes
to shoot off here.
[Wood] I can't drop my head down
when I make a mistake.
-Get off the field. Let's go. Next play.
-Pick your head up.
Pick your head up. Let's go.
Pick your head up.
They have not stopped you all night.
Listen to me.
Fumble, interception, scored a touchdown,
then we fumble again.
We gotta finish.
[Crowder] The football
on the one-yard line
for Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Everybody bunched up
at the line of scrimmage.
Whitlow with a snap. Quarterback keeper,
he goes straight up the middle
and it is...
a touchdown.
So on the quarterback sneak,
from one yard out, Kalen Whitlow scores.
[Winfield] And EMCC's turned it over,
I think, four times in this first half.
[Crowder] Buddy Stephens
has done a great job
remaining calm in situations
where it's hard to remain calm.
-That's gonna...
-[buzzer sounds]
...sound the buzzer here at the half.
Gulf Coast trails EMCC, 14-7.
-[Buddy] Hey, hey, hey, listen up.
-[De'Andre] Hey, shut up!
[Buddy] Shut up, listen up.
All we gotta do is make plays!
Settle down, relax, and have fun.
Don't put so much pressure on yourself.
Enjoy it. Go out there...
Hey, stop 'em early
and then let's get this bad boy
rolling and cranking.
The only way they stop this train
is if you let 'em.
Big-time players
make big-time plays, when?
-[all] Big-time games.
-And this is a big-time game for us.
Let's go.
Let's get ready to go now, all right?
[Winfield] EMCC,
they're pretty good defensively
but they turned the ball over four times
so we're not playing very good
at the half.
[Crowder] Sophomores,
they're gonna have those early
first-quarter-into-the-second-quarter
nerves
that they're trying to shake through
because this is their first game
of the 2016 season.
But right now, they really need to get
the momentum to swing in their favor.
Let's see what they can do
to stick it in. Here's the snap.
Johnson backside pressure.
Gets rid of it quickly
with a screen pass,
spinning away from one tackle.
[crowd cheering]
Diving for the goal line...
-[whistle blows]
-Touchdown!
-[crowd cheering]
-[marching band playing]
-[Buddy] Bingo!
-[player] That's how we do, boy!
-[Crowder] Oh, my goodness, what a run!
-[Winfield] Absolutely electric.
[players screaming]
[Crowder]
I cannot believe what I just saw.
-[player] What'd I tell you?
-[indistinct chatter]
[Crowder] Boy, EMCC, Glen,
came out of the locker room
and they really seized an opportunity
to get the momentum
to swing in their favor
here in the second half.
[player] Game time! Game time!
[Winfield] Well, all of a sudden
this game has the feel
of one that EMCC
is about to really run away with.
[Crowder] Touchdown run
by Jacquez Horsley around the right side.
[cheering]
[player] We gonna win. We gonna win.
[Crowder] Tailback's gonna be clobbered
by Chauncey Rivers,
the sophomore from Atlanta, Georgia.
Cuts downfield, inside the ten, the five,
going towards the goal line
and touchdown!
[Crowder] EMCC busting
the barn doors open.
[Williams cheering]
Good job, boy! Good job!
[Winfield] Kam Carter again.
He has been dominant in the middle.
[Crowder] Vijay Miller,
gonna try to get to the pylon, he dives...
Touchdown, EMCC!
[De'Andre] We just getting started.
We just getting started.
[Crowder] The horn's gonna sound
and that's it.
-[all cheering]
-[marching band continues playing]
[players chanting]
[Winfield] Every game from here on out
is about making a statement
that you're not just better
than the other team,
but that you're much, much better.
[cheering]
-[man] There you go...
-I see everything.
It's been a long time coming
to put this team back on the field.
And you did one heck of a job tonight.
Give yourself a hand.
-Great job.
-[players cheering]
-Hey!
-Let's go, baby.
Hey. Hey, as coaches,
we got some things to work on.
As players,
you got some things to work on.
We're gonna get better.
This is game one for us, you understand?
Great job, guys.
Hey. Enjoy it, enjoy it. Let's go!
-[cheering continues]
-[indistinct chatter]
[car approaching]
[Buddy] Sure was a lot of relief
after the game.
[chuckles] You know?
I felt relieved for 55 kids,
and, you know,
eight coaches and all their families,
and there was a lot of relief.
But that run was, uh...
was phenomenal.
I don't know that I've seen anybody
lay out and fly...
like that.
[Scott Van Pelt]
There's a fellow named Isaiah Wright.
His recruitment,
starting to gain a little bit of steam
and he's showing why here.
Best thing I saw today.
-[co-host] What? Scooba!
-[Van Pelt chuckling]
[Van Pelt] They beat Mississippi
Gulf Coast Community College.
Here we go again. Wait for it.
-[co-host] What?
-[Van Pelt] I mean...
fantastic.
[Lee Anthony Patrick]
He said, "Dad, just get on your Facebook.
I have something to show you."
I said, "Okay, son."
I get off and I look at it, I see it,
and I see the little bubble pass, I say,
"Yeah, that's nice, that's to Isaiah."
But then when I see him dive
over the person, I said,
"Wow. What... Wow. I mean, wow!"
And, uh, told everybody. I called my...
I called from... [laughs]
My uncle,
-I called my aunts and 'em in Chattanooga.
-[chuckles]
I called everybody. "Did you see my son?
Did you see?" I was braggin' and braggin'.
Mmm-hmm.
I was with him when he saw it.
-He woke me up out of bed to see it again.
-[chuckling]
I was on the front porch and he made me
watch it at least four times
before I went back to sleep.
-[Camion on phone] What up?
-[Isaiah] Hey!
Hey, you watch the game?
[Camion] I missed your play
by, like... five minutes.
Fuck, man!
I'm so mad.
-I spun off one dude.
-Yeah.
And then, like, I was bobbling it,
so I had to burn one of 'em
that was coming.
So I didn't know what else to do.
'Cause he was bigger than me
and I was like,
-"I ain't 'bout to run this nigga over."
-[Camion chuckling]
So I was like,
"Fuck it, I'll just jump." [chuckles]
Yeah, I watched it this morning
with Coach Gasper.
Bro, that's ESPN-type shit, bro.
You're still not gonna beat
my record, though.
I'mma get your ass.
You ain't gonna be able to do it.
[Isaiah] My personal goal this year is
I need to break my brother record.
His touchdown record is 14. Mine was 13.
This year, that's my main goal,
is to beat his.
His older brother plays
for Indiana right now.
And played for us for, um...
a year before Isaiah got here.
[stadium announcer]
And pass and a run by Camion.
[crowd cheering]
-[crowd cheering]
-[whistle blows]
[Isaiah] That's, like, a role model to me.
That's big brother, so...
really, everything I do, I got from him.
So... People just say
I make it look better. [chuckles]
That's when Camion signed to Indiana.
Cam again. There's Cam.
And this is
when Cam played, uh, basketball.
He... That man was...
That man played everything.
He was a beast in everything,
to be honest.
This right here
is when I was in foster care.
There's me.
I was, like, four foot somethin'.
This is Camion. And this is Ez.
[Eszmone] What I do...
I pretty much do everything
they don't wanna do.
[chuckling]
Just... I just chill, and...
wash clothes and all that.
It's actually fun.
I kinda get the credit of playing football
because of my brothers.
And then, because of them, my brothers,
I'm popular, so, it's...
It equals itself out. [chuckles]
[Cade Wilkerson]
He's Isaiah's number one fan.
[laughs] He's a good kid, though.
He's a manager for us and, you know,
he does what he's supposed to do
and he keeps Isaiah at a level,
even keel, too, so that's good as well.
It looked like
you tried to bring it in and you...
fuckin' hit your damn leg.
[Eszmone] I was really good in high school
until I tore my ACL and meniscus.
[chuckling]
I got twisted up and my knee popped
and that was the end of it.
I haven't played football since.
And I was, like, "Ah... Oh, well,
I guess I'll just support Isaiah."
I was always there on film.
I was always at the end zone
when Isaiah was there.
And I was always hyping up the players
so they all got together and decided
I could come here with Isaiah.
Yeah, Ez. Well, man, that man crazy, man.
That man... [chuckles]
[stammers] That's my...
He older than me,
but it makes it seem
like I'm the older brother,
'cause I gotta take care of him.
Ez, hurry up.
Or I'll have to fight your ass.
We had a hard time growing up.
We, um...
We was in foster care for about six years.
So my mom had left us when we was little.
Like, way little.
And then my dad was in jail at the time,
so we were just bouncing around six years
foster care, foster houses to house.
And then that six years later,
my dad got out of jail
and he came and got us
and then moved on from there.
My dad, he went in after Isaiah was born.
He got to still hold Isaiah in handcuffs.
You know how it is.
He just didn't get to sign
the birth certificate.
[Isaiah] To be honest,
it's really hard to explain.
My mama, she would disappear
for a few nights or a couple weeks
and then there goes a few more weeks,
she still hasn't came back.
So my brother, Camion, the oldest,
he steps up to be the mother figure
and the father figure.
He stopped going to school
to help us go to school.
We'd literally walk in Walmart
and get some chicken or something
and just walk around the store and eat it
and just walk right on out of the store.
That was the way we found our way to eat.
We ain't had no bed. We slept on floors.
We all bundled up, slept together.
And then, next thing you know,
there goes DCS and then they take us.
I mean, we bounced around, I'd say,
about a good six, seven homes.
[stammers] To be honest, we didn't take...
If you gave us rules,
we didn't listen to 'em.
We made our own rules.
We made our own life.
We made our own decisions.
Eszmone...
When we was in foster care,
he was tied up.
With duct tape and everything.
Like, people don't even know that.
And then, we...
we'd literally got fist-fought.
We literally fist-fought
our foster parents.
We was the type of family of
"If you mess with one of us,
you gonna mess with all of us.
We all gonna jump in."
So she said, "Well, all right.
Then we just gonna split y'all up."
And then we all stood up
and was like, "Oh, hell no.
We ain't going for that.
So if he going, we going."
So they just sent us all off
to another house.
God blessed us to stay together, I guess,
through that six-year period.
[Eszmone] That had
a big, big impact on our life,
being, kind of, alone for a while.
And, like, just being with each other,
it really brought us together.
I know, like, everybody
has the same thing, "Family is first,"
but, like, we take ours to the next level,
like, we're so strongly attached, like...
it's... incredible.
[Buddy] No, no! Hey!
Hey, get back in here!
-No! No! No!
-[all clamoring and yelling]
Get back! Get back! Get back!
[Eszmone] Well, I forgot when and where,
but he disappeared
for a couple of seconds,
and I could not find him.
And so I ran out there, looking for him.
And when I found him, six other guys came
and tried to hit him with a helmet,
so that's when I came in,
jumped over and hit the first dude,
pushed the other dude over.
It was, like, just,
"Just back off my brother. Just back up."
And all six people backed off from me
and just walked off.
The love that they had,
and the tight grip
and the tight bond
that they had with each other
while they was in foster care,
I believe that's where it was,
'cause they fought hard
to get up out that system,
and they fought hard
to get us back together with them
and they fightin' hard right now.
So that's a whole lot of things
that my kids got on their back,
but it doesn't even show
because they always wear that smile
on their face.
To me, my soul was hurt
because I wasn't there, you understand?
I wasn't there being the father
that I was supposed to be.
I tell 'em, I said,
"I done did enough time
for all of y'all in this house.
So let that time be on me.
And leave the freedom to y'all."
[Isaiah] Football's what saved my life.
'Cause I'd probably still be
on the streets, doing the same stuff,
and getting into trouble,
getting arrested, and all that.
-[Wagner] Tim, how are your grades?
-[Tim] I know I probably got an F in math.
[Wagner sighs]
Well, do you need to go to tutoring?
-Yep.
-[Wagner] Well, let's go.
-Why do you have a F in Human Growth?
-[Tim] Let me see it.
[Tim chuckles] 'Cause it's hard.
I still got that B in that history, huh?
[Wagner] Good. What do you need
to be doing for Human Growth?
It looks like you have some zeros
that you can still do.
You have a zero on chapter five
and six quiz that's still open.
-Okay.
-That'll help your grade.
Somebody gonna give me
the answers for that bad boy.
I always get the answers
for them quizzes and something.
You need to do
this goal-setting assignment.
I got it in my book bag.
I typed it up already.
-No, you haven't.
-It's on Canvas...
-How you gonna tell me where it's at?
-It's on Canvas?
-Log in and do it. Now.
-I'm playing. It ain't.
-It is--
-I gotta go to tutor.
-Tim...
-I'll be back. I'll be back.
[Wagner sighs]
[Wagner] Tim... You know,
Tim was an academic issue at Louisville,
and, I mean, I think
academics is hard for him,
and I think he plays that joke
of being special ed...
And, you know, he jokes around about that.
But I think that's his cover-up
for the fact that he, in his mind,
he doesn't think he can do it.
You know, and, like, it is a struggle,
and it is hard and, like,
that's his only explanation, I think,
is like, "Well, I must be special ed."
-[music playing]
-[Wagner] Turn that down.
Turn it down, please.
Gotta ride with me one time,
Miss Brittany.
-Turn it down. Now.
-♪ You ain't getting your way... ♪
[Tim] Y'all, I can't never get buck
with Miss Brittany, bro.
She always gotta cry, bro.
Hey. Miss Brittany...
Before I leave,
you gotta get buck one time now.
-I don't...
-Why not?
'Cause you...
You won't... You don't listen.
-I do listen to you.
-You don't.
I respect you to the fullest.
I keep it 100 with you, Miss Brittany.
You have a 64 in the math lab.
-Oh, for real?
-Mm-hmm.
That good or bad?
I mean, it coming up, though.
It used to be lower than that.
[Wagner] I mean, the kid's hyper.
That's it. [chuckles]
He's hyper.
[stutters] You know, he's not...
He's smart. He can do it.
But he's been... It's almost
like he's just been brainwashed
to believe that he's not smart enough.
So somebody's told that kid
that he's special ed,
that he's not smart, that he's stupid,
that he needs an A/B test.
I mean, somebody's put all that
in his head which, you know,
that kind of stuff just makes me upset
because... it was probably somebody
in education
that started telling him that
at a young age
and now he believes it.
It's a special time to play at home.
It's our first time all year.
This place is gonna be packed.
It's gonna be rocking.
Northeast is 2-0.
And they're gonna try to do what they do.
We have to do what we do and do it faster.
We'd better be 100%! Let's go!
[Trickett] You got a game tomorrow. Focus!
[Wood] Stretch good. Stretch good.
2-0, baby.
They're 2-0, coming in here,
fixing on putting their first L
on their record.
Today, we have to be locked in.
We're not gonna have a good day.
We're gonna have a great day.
[Crowder] And you think, "Okay.
45-7 win at Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Nowhere to go but up, right?"
Well, they dropped two spots,
to number 14.
Northeast is a team that's, uh...
They're 2-0.
If you win that one,
especially if you win it big,
you would see no reason
why EMCC wouldn't rise in the polls.
I think this team's up for the challenge.
EMCC knows nothing
but winning on this field.
Home games are fun, guys.
Because our people are here supporting us.
If you haven't ever experienced
a home game in Scooba,
it's special, guys.
Trust me, those stands
are gonna be packed.
Some crazy guy's gonna be howling.
Growling.
Seven o'clock tomorrow night,
somebody's fixin'
on getting' an ass whoopin'.
♪ Did you pray today?
Did you pray today? ♪
♪ I could dick you down
On some gangster shit ♪
♪ Did you pray today?
I could put you down ♪
♪ On the gangster shit ♪
♪ I could put you down
With some gangster shit ♪
♪ Did you pray today?
Did you have a baby? ♪
♪ You got ventilation ♪
♪ Whoo-ooh ♪
♪ Did you pray today?
Did you have a baby? ♪
♪ You got ventilation ♪
♪ Thugger! ♪
[cheering]
[Crowder] First game of the 2016 season
at Sullivan-Windham Field.
Only one loss here since 2011.
Northeast is the opponent tonight
as we open up North Division play.
The Lions, now 1-1 on the year,
trying to get to 2-1 and go above .500.
[Winfield] I think this is an offense
that we have just begun
to see what they're capable of.
[De'Andre] Ready, set!
[grunting]
[Crowder] Here's the snap.
Play action to Wright.
He's gonna tuck it himself.
Inside the fifteen, the ten, the five.
Gets to the goal line, hit there,
but he's gonna be in for the touchdown.
EMCC's gonna score.
[De'Andre] Take your weak ass home!
[Buddy] That's a good job, guys!
That's a good job, guys!
Give me an ammonia towel.
Give me one of the ammonia towels.
Hey, y'all need a towel? You need a towel?
You need an ammonia towel?
Anybody want one of these?
They smell so good. They smell so good.
They smell so good.
Nobody want one? All right.
All right, now it's our turn.
We gotta do what we gotta do.
You ready to go? You ready to go?
We're running 31-Cover-2 first.
[Crowder] First quarter, 7-nothing.
EMCC scored on their opening try.
Northeast trying to do the same.
Cunningham fires it on the slant,
caught in the end zone.
Touchdown, Northeast.
Nine-yard touchdown strike.
Let's go, guys! Let's go! Let's go!
We need some energy! Let's go!
Where that energy at?
Hey, we need some energy.
Hey, we need energy! Energy!
Let's go! Let's go!
[Crowder] We're tied
at seven in the first quarter.
Let's see what EMCC can do here.
Isaiah Wright stands inside the five.
It goes into his hands at the seven.
It's Isaiah Wright,
tries to come around near side.
Out across the ten. Across the 15.
He has a lot of blockers.
20, 25, 30.
Tries to find a hole, he does.
He's out across the 40.
And he's going to be drug down.
[whistle blows]
Just came flying in there
and pounded him on the turf.
-[Bontrager] You good?
-[Eszmone] Let's go.
[Bontrager] You all right? Talk to me.
-[Isaiah] My head.
-[Bontrager] Your head?
[Isaiah] I'm dizzy, kind of.
[Bontrager] Hey, stay down and talk to me.
-You remember what happened?
-[Isaiah] I'm good.
Come on. Let me up. Shit.
-[crowd applauding]
-[Bontrager] Hey...
[Isaiah] I'm good. [chuckles]
-[Bontrager] You good?
-[Isaiah] Yeah.
You dizzy?
I ain't dizzy, but I got that headache.
Okay.
[stadium announcer] The ball's spotted
at the Northeast Mississippi 48-yard line.
Look at me. Okay.
All right. Take a second.
[stadium announcer] Pass falls incomplete.
Second down and ten.
[woman] Does the light hurt your head?
When I look up at 'em.
[Eszmone] Isaiah...
I know you don't wanna do it,
but you have to put that helmet back on.
You gonna have to get us hype.
The choice is yours.
I don't want you
risking getting a worse...
a worse concussion
than what you already have.
But we need somebody to score.
-[trainer] How're you feelin'?
-Mmm. Fine.
How's your head?
I mean, it's there,
but it's not like how it was.
All right. What about dizzy?
All right. What about lights?
They bothering you?
I mean, barely.
All right, let's look at you at halftime,
see if you can go second half, okay?
[Isaiah] Shit.
To be honest,
I don't even know where the fuck I'm at.
[stadium announcer] Gain takes the ball
to the 36-yard line. First down, Lions!
-[Isaiah] Holy shit.
-[man] Sit down.
[Isaiah] That bitch is starting to come.
I just got dizzy as a motherfucker.
Oh, my God.
[crowd cheering]
[Isaiah] Oh, my God!
All right. Isaiah...
-How're you doing? Sit down.
-[Isaiah] Oh! [sighs]
-[trainer] You okay?
-No, that shit just started hurtin'.
[trainer] You're getting' a headache?
[Isaiah groaning] Fuck!
It's all right. [chuckles]
[trainer] Your whole head?
-[Isaiah groans]
-[trainer] Over here?
[Isaiah] That light hurt.
[groans] Fuck!
[Crowder] Johnson, with the snap.
Gonna leave it on the ground.
Busting it right up the middle
is Price towards the goal line.
Did he score? Touchdown, EMCC!
And a three-yard touchdown run. 13-7.
-EMCC has regained the lead.
-[Isaiah] Ow!
I'm dizzy.
[Isaiah groans]
Oh, my God, bro...
[Crowder] And here's the snap.
Here's the kick... Blocked by EMCC!
The Lions have a chance
to pick it up, and they do.
They're running with it.
Down the near sideline.
Inside the 40. Inside the 30.
Inside the 20.
Ten! Five! Touchdown, EMCC!
And EMCC leads it by 23, 33-10...
Fuck. [groaning]
[Crowder] It's rolling loose
around the five-yard line.
Scooped up, score! Touchdown, EMCC...
Here's the snap.
He gives it with Price,
goes up the middle again,
and Price has his second touchdown
of the game.
Quick snap, Price. Cuts down the field,
gets to the goal line.
Scores! Touchdown, EMCC...
Inside the 20, inside the 15.
Inside the ten. He spins free.
Five, touchdown!
[Crowder]
Congratulations to Isaiah Wright.
You remember the old dive
into the end zone
from the five-yard line?
It made SportsCenter.
Scott Van Pelt. I think that was, like,
the best thing he saw that day.
[Winfield] Well, it was certainly
something worth recognition.
You don't see many like that...
[Crowder] ...EMCC is gonna win it
in a big way.
54-10 over their North Division rival
from Booneville, Mississippi,
-and EMCC flexes its muscles.
-[buzzer sounds]
[fireworks exploding]
Now here comes EMCC to attempt
the two-point conversion.
Miller back to pass, backside pressure.
Throws as he's hit,
and it's knocked away at the goal line.
And EMCC is gonna drop game one.
But what a valiant effort.
With only 32 players,
all freshmen,
except for some transfer sophomores.
They came up just a bit short, 27-25.
They'll take that all day long.
These guys fought valiantly...
[indistinct chatter]
[Wood] Hey, hey, hey!
Listen up! Whoa! Listen up!
Make sure you're congratulating these
when they get back now.
They played their tail off.
You know they did.
Thirty guys, that's all we had!
Thirty guys, all we--
[De'Andre] Guys, guys, guys, guys!
Listen up! Listen up!
What happened with it, it's done.
We can't do nothing about it.
Now we on to Gulf Coast.
When the freshmen get back, cheer 'em on.
Now it's our time to take over.
It's nobody's fault but our self.
Now, let's take it from there.
Let's go.
[marching band playing]
[inaudible]
[man 1] When you see a guy
ball up his fist and punch a woman,
it is hard to wrap your mind around,
"Hey, let's give this guy another chance."
[Abigail Husty] It definitely impacted
my life in a negative way,
but I'm moving
towards the correct direction.
So, hopefully that'll help.
[chuckles nervously]
[man 2] I know that he reached out
to some other FBS schools and...
and they could not take him.
Not that they didn't want him as a player,
but just because of the reaction
they would get.
Why didn't you walk away?
A lot of people wondering,
why wouldn't you walk away
from an incident like that?
[man 1] This was an assault on a woman.
If you're the head coach
at East Mississippi--
-[man 3] He's not playing for me.
-[man 1] You're not taking him!
[Stephen A. Smith] It's inexcusable.
Striking that woman, he should be ashamed.
He was on Good Morning America,
talking to Michael Strahan.
You made some mistakes,
whatever the case may be.
And I'm not trying to say
that your life should be over,
and it should be ruined.
But there's a price that needs to be paid
because the message has to be sent.
[man 4] You have to draw a line.
You have to say no.
You're not playing here
if you've got that in your past.
It is a career-ender, and it needs to be.
He shouldn't be there.
[Buddy] He talking about, you know,
we're gonna be renamed
the East Mississippi Counselors...
bugged the hell outta me.
He has no idea about De'Andre Johnson.
-He has no idea what we've planned...
-[Crowder on phone] Absolutely.
...to help that kid.
I ain't stupid. I mean, you know?
I know what the hell I'm doing.
You know, give me...
You know, take a chill pill.
You know, we have a vessel here
that we have to use.
-[Crowder] Absolutely. Which is fine.
-And if...
he doesn't play for you,
he's gonna play for somebody else.
-[Crowder] Right.
-You better find a way
to help him and help you
at the same time, so...
[Crowder] He deserves a second chance.
I mean, my gosh,
-it's not like he committed murder--
-[Buddy] Well, he's...
he's gonna get a second chance
and he's gonna pay his penance.
And he's gonna do the things
that he needs to do.
And seek counseling.
And, you know... And for anger...
He's taking an anger management class.
You know, he's working
in a battered women's shelter.
Don't sit out there
and start tweeting stuff,
trying to crucify me or our program,
because I...
Listen, I'm a vindictive son of a gun now.
You know, let's be real,
if that cat wasn't
a really good football player,
we wouldn't be talking to him, you know?
But if he weren't
a really good football player,
his ordeal wouldn't be making
front page of the Sporting News.
What people think of me
is not the big thing, um...
It really isn't,
'cause it doesn't bother me.
What bothers me is the scrutiny
that the school's put under.
[Trickett] When the incident happened,
we called around.
My father coaches at Florida State.
I played there.
Everyone was shocked at what happened.
They said, honestly,
since he's gotten there,
they've never had a problem with it
and then there was just one incident,
when he's out one night.
I'm sure alcohol was involved.
That doesn't make it better or anything,
but made a bad decision.
Horrible decision.
[Wagner] Some teachers were saying, wait,
you know, we admitted this...
You know, this kid's here?
He's gonna sit in my class?
You know, I think that's unfortunate.
I get it.
But I think it's unfortunate for the kid
because, you know, this is his life.
And he made a mistake, a big one,
and it was documented
for the world to see.
But we've all made mistakes.
This is not our first rodeo
on taking a kid that's been kicked out
of a place and rehabilitating him.
So, I think we know how to do this.
I mean, what is the alternative to that?
He can't ever go to school?
He can't get an education now
because when he was 17 years old,
he made a mistake at a bar?
I mean, I just felt like
he deserves an opportunity.
So, until he proves differently to me,
you know, I'm gonna treat him
just like I would treat any of 'em.
I mean, he's just...
He's a college football player, who...
is looking for an opportunity
and I'm prepared to help him get there.
[indistinct chatter on phone]
[De'Andre] What take you so long
to answer?
Ain't nothin'.
On my way to the training room.
[chatter on phone]
Say wassup, I'm doing great, you know.
I'm feeling good.
Throwing... throwing really good.
Everything's good.
[man] Just wanted to, you know,
remind you that you're in a competition
and, you know, make sure that,
you know,
you embrace that competition.
You know...
Continue to show
that you're the alpha dog out there
and just make sure
that they can see your work ethic.
The biggest thing for me was, like,
getting back in the groove, you know?
'Cause I've been out for, like, what?
-Two seasons.
-A whole year.
Yeah, a whole year, pretty much.
You know, so the biggest thing was
finding my rhythm back
and I got it now, though.
This gonna be a good season.
[players speaking indistinctly]
[coach] Keep running, keep running.
[Vijay] Oh! My fault.
[Trickett] De'Andre, get up. De'Andre!
[De'Andre] It's been two years
since I've played.
I feel anxious.
I feel nervous. I feel excited.
I came from a Division I
and I could've easily played last year.
But I had to sit out.
-[speaking indistinctly]
-[De'Andre] I couldn't practice.
I feel eager to get back out there
and prove people wrong.
Um, that I'm worthy of being a quarterback
at the next level,
that the gift that God gave me
has never left me.
[Wood] Ball.
Good.
Everybody switch. Good.
[Crowder] Going into the second week
of this season, you get De'Andre Johnson,
a guy that's a transfer from Florida State
who has all the talent in the world.
Look at his high school numbers.
You know he's gonna be
that next great quarterback
like a Chad Kelly for EMCC.
He can lead this offense.
And you add in Isaiah Wright
who is a promising tailback,
then things look good.
But you have no margin for error now,
if you wanna play
for a national championship.
[laughing]
[grunting]
[both speaking indistinctly]
Isaiah, he's a...
he's a tremendous athlete.
I think he's a guy that, when you see him
one-on-one in the open field,
he's pretty phenomenal.
He's always got something going.
He's always excited about something.
Uh, laughing, he's a very charismatic kid.
Uh... He's just... he's a good kid.
-[Wood] Good, good, good.
-I got sweat in my eyes.
Okay, I got you.
Does that get it?
-It's just... [chuckles]
-[yells playfully]
[Wood] Like having kids.
You get that rag out
and you just wipe that face.
Here we go, here we go.
Right, south, 92-Y.
Let's go, let's go!
We're wasting reps. Let's go.
Get down.
[Buddy] The thing about Isaiah is,
he's a special athlete, you know.
You can tell there's a difference
between him and everybody else
that's on the field.
He has no idea how good he can be.
Not that he isn't now, he is now.
But he can be very special
on a different level.
[indistinct chatter]
[Milner] When you lose one game,
you're still in the running.
Losing two, now that's a different story.
But if they run the table, they win out,
they win the state championship,
well, then, then you start thinking, okay,
well, that one loss was by two points,
it was with their freshmen, you know.
This is clearly a dominating team.
They should be
in the national championship.
-[indistinct chatter]
-All right, listen up. Hey!
Let me say this,
the guys that were out there playing,
um, very proud of you, again.
I mean, when you got a defensive tackle
playing offensive guard,
you're having to, say, block that guy?
I mean, that's tough, all right?
But as a team, now,
this is gonna be a lot of fun.
I felt more relaxed today than ever,
especially for a Gulf Coast game,
because we're gonna have our whole group.
Our family together.
Here's what I want you to do.
From this day forward,
you work to get better.
Always keep that in the back of the mind.
That, "I've got to learn and get better."
I got a newfound respect for Coach Wood
and the other offensive coaches
because y'all been on the sideline
with me before.
I'm constantly, you know,
into something, huh?
Constantly into something.
Well, that helped me
change a little bit because now I...
Thursday night, I could've done
with somebody in my ear
the way I'm in their ear.
We're all about business now.
You know what you gotta do,
you know what's ahead of you.
Okay?
I have no doubt, I have zero doubt...
that we'll get accomplished
what we need to.
The pressure of being
the head coach is that...
everything, um...
that happens with your program,
good, bad... you know, otherwise,
always falls on you.
And there's been a lot of good,
and with the good comes the praise
and then with the bad comes the scorn,
and you can't get too high
and you can't get too low,
and if you do,
it becomes really hard to deal with.
You're banking your future on
what 17, 18, 19-year-old guys do.
How I take care of my family
depends on these guys,
and you wanna push 'em
in every different facet and realm
that you possibly can
so that they'll perform,
and sometimes you lose track of, uh...
of what you're there for.
You're not there to make sure
you get your utility bill paid, you know?
If you do it right...
if you do it right, it'll, uh...
good things'll happen.
Okay, good, good.
Come back, come back, come back.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry.
Come on, come on.
Come on, come on. Watch me!
Move over. Slide over, now-- Hey!
Linebackers, slide over!
Four-two, okay?
Pull your head outta your butt.
Let's go. Twenty-two.
Good coaches,
they put so much pressure on themselves.
Set, hit! Play violently.
Play violently. Let's go!
[whistle blows]
And then you throw in
a national championship or two.
Snatch him!
[Davis] There's no way you can understand
the pressure of that.
It's hard to win one,
much less three in a row.
[Buddy] If you don't listen,
we're gonna get our ass beat this week.
You combo this! You gotta tell him.
Quit being cute and start working.
People think that it's a game,
but it's a business.
If he don't win,
what's gonna happen to him?
He gonna get fired.
[Buddy] I gotta be all in! All in.
I can't be halfway.
Okay? If that happens, we're...
Good things... It's gonna be great, okay?
It's gonna be great. And it will be.
[Lauren Stephens]
It's weird to see him that way
'cause he's not the same at home,
but he does that because
he's serving two different people groups.
He's serving his family
and then serving his players, so...
he's doing what he has to do here
to get the job done.
You're doing good.
[Buddy snickers]
As far as I can tell.
[Buddy chuckles]
Hey, I haven't dropped no bad words yet,
so it's all good.
-[laughing]
-I love you.
-[Buddy] I love you, so much.
-Bye.
-See you later.
-All right.
[Lauren] It was hard to watch my dad.
Something that he took so seriously,
kind of go to shambles and him not have
really a lot of control over it.
Hey, be careful going back.
Call your mother.
[Lauren] When it comes
to people attacking you on Facebook
and people asking me
at school all the time
or talking about my dad's foul mouth.
That's not an easy thing to do
because I'm not ashamed of my dad
and I love him so much, no matter what.
He has been really vulnerable
and open with us about his struggles
and the things that he needs to change
in his life.
But at the end of the day,
it's not about what happened last season,
but it's about your response to it
and how...
What you take away from it.
[sighing] So...
[car horn honking]
[coach] You want to feed it through.
Don't let that ball die,
don't let that ball...
[player 1] They beat half our team.
-[Tim] They barely beat us.
-Barely beat y'all.
So, add 'bout 30 more points to that.
No, forget 30. Add 'bout 40.
[Wood] Bump out. Bump out.
All right, bump over.
Just a hair, right there.
Good, right here.
I thought they did really well.
I was real pleased with 'em.
You put 'em out there with really
no starting experience from anybody.
Even the guys that had dropped down
from senior colleges,
but to see how they performed
and the way they pushed through it.
Real, real proud of 'em. So...
We were excited about being back,
that's for sure.
[Kam] Son, them niggas was weak ass, bro.
I can't believe we lost to them.
[Vijay] They was weak as fuck, bro.
So, I hope that...
They not even gonna make the playoffs.
That's... that's the sad thing, son.
So we not even gonna get
to get our revenge, bro.
[Vijay] What you wearing?
-Huh?
-What you wearing, bro?
-Nigga, I got shorts on.
-What you got goin' on?
[chuckling]
What the fuck you got goin' on, bro?
[laughs]
He still at Penn State.
And then, look how he got
his shorts rolled up.
-I hate pulling them--
-Look at him.
[players laughing]
[Williams] Kam played unexpectedly well.
Kam played like
a dominant interior lineman
and I told him
that I was proud of him for it.
So hopefully by the end of the season,
whenever that is, you know,
he'll be one of the top interior tackles
in junior colleges in the country.
[Kam] Coach Williams a good coach.
He a good coach.
-Oh, yeah.
-For real.
-He know what he talking about.
-He do, son.
Like... [stammers] he helped
my game so much, that I'm like...
Yes, as far as, like,
pass rushing and stuff?
I feel like I can ask him anything
and he got answers, you know what I mean?
Chauncey must've took
a lot of classes at Georgia.
Chauncey's smart as fuck, bro.
-I ain't know that.
-[chuckles]
Son, I'm trying to tell you.
That dude got, like, a 3,8, bro.
-[chuckling]
-He got a 3,8?
Yes, son. That nigga is smart.
-[player] It's over.
-[Kam] They...
They wanted me and him to be roommates.
I ain't gonna say my GPA.
[both chuckle]
[indistinct chatter]
[Kam] Man, Chauncey the shoe king.
The snack king. [laughing]
Oh, yeah, I got all the Js.
Chauncey got all the snacks,
all the shoes.
[Chauncey] Bro, it's just 'cause my mama
had just came up here, bro.
[player] Yeah, you do got a lot of snacks.
[Chauncey] My mama just came up here.
[Kam] Lemme get one of them jawns,
Chauncey.
[Chauncey] If I'm eating my things...
If I wake up in the morning
and it's gone...
and it's over on the trash
and I wake up and say,
"Kam, did you eat my stuff?"
"Yeah, I didn't eat all of it."
"Why is it gone?
Why is there nothing in the bag?
Who gave you the go-ahead
to eat my stuff while I'm asleep?"
If I would have punched him
in the face while he was asleep,
it would have been my fault.
[Kam] I don't give a fuck
what you do, Chauncey.
-I don't ask you for shit.
-[Wagner shushing]
Stop. Kam.
You should not eat his food
without asking.
-I asked him.
-That's like saying--
-Did he say no?
-[laughing]
See, I don't do that one-way shit.
When I got food, or bags of chips,
you know what I mean?
I be like, "Oh! Go ahead, nigga."
-This man can't live without--
-So, I don't give a fuck
what this nigga talkin' 'bout.
Rodney has witnessed
this nigga takin' my Doritos.
[Wagner shushing] Okay,
we're gonna clean up our language.
This man got a whole tank top on,
I'm like, "Why this shit so tight on him?"
-You know?
-[Kam laughing]
I mean, what the hell? Sorry.
I'm looking at my tank top, like,
"I know that shit ain't mine."
Let me look at the tag.
So, I look at it like...
"I know this can't be mine."
I'm finna hit this man
in his mouth and shit.
I said, "If you don't take
my tank top off,
I'm gonna hit you in your goddamn face."
-He think we brothers?
-Yes.
-No!
-Brothers.
We don't wear the same clothes.
Me and him are two different people.
Look at the stuff he wear
and the stuff I wear.
He's nasty. I'm not.
You talking about dirty.
You wear the same hoodie every day.
-What the fuck are you, a pumpkin?
-[Wagner] Okay.
We're gonna be nice to each other.
You took your toothbrush
and wipe your shoes with it.
-What are you talking about?
-I wa--
"I wa..."
What the hell you talking about?
-[Kam] I use my old toothbrush.
-Be the bigger person.
Don't do it to yourself out here.
I'm your roommate.
-I used my old toothbrush.
-I'm your roommate.
You the same person say you wash
your clothes every Tuesday,
but them bitches dirty as hell.
-[Kam] So I have this shoe toothbrush--
-Kam...
Don't do this to yourself,
'cause they come in the room.
-[Kam] I don't got...
-[Chauncey] Don't do it to yourself.
-[Kam] They can come to the room!
-Shh!
[Kam] They can come!
I'll show 'em my shoe toothbrush.
-[Chauncey] You got history.
-[Wagner] Look.
Stop. Time out.
From this moment forward,
if you can't say something nice,
don't say it at all.
[Kam] But the moral to that story is--
Uh! Everybody.
[player] What's the moral to the story?
Chauncey's a bitch, 'cause I take his shit
and he don't do shit.
[Chauncey] I hope East Mississippi
give you more gear,
'cause you gonna be here three more years.
You a dumbass. [chuckles]
[indistinct chatter]
[player] Ready, set!
[coach] Good.
[clapping]
-You want some water?
-[De'Andre] Yeah.
How was the drive?
It was nice, man. Just, man, shoot.
I got to make sure
you don't run out of gas around here.
[Earl Johnson]
When he went to high school,
De'Andre lead them to the Florida
state championship as a freshman.
They went 14-0.
And he had one regular season
triple overtime loss
throughout his whole career.
He beat the whole Jacksonville
for four years straight.
I mean, De'Andre always wanted
to play at Florida State.
De'Andre idolized Jimbo Fisher.
'Cause he knew that Coach Fisher would
make him into the quarterback
that he wanted to be.
You know, we don't...
we don't raise De'Andre to...
to hit anybody under any circumstances,
you know.
-Under any circumstances.
-Not even a play fight.
But at the end of the day...
right is right and wrong is wrong.
And he was wrong.
[player grunts]
[Trickett] Couple more. Couple more.
Get that core loose.
[Pamela] I still have a hard time
talking about it.
It's just...
I don't know. My heart just went out.
[stammers] Just dropped.
It just totally dropped.
It's just, like, I couldn't breathe.
Couldn't understand.
It's just... It's a surprise.
Still a surprise.
Still have a hard time... you know, but...
-[Pamela] I cry.
-[Michael Strahan] Mm-hmm.
I just cried. I cried for three days.
I still cry.
'Cause I don't teach my kids
to raise their hand.
And for this just to happen... I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
What did you say to De'Andre?
[sighs deeply]
I wanted to jump through the phone...
and wring his neck.
That was probably, like... [sighs]
[stammers] It was a bad day.
It was a bad day, and, um...
-And it's still a bad day.
-It's still a bad day.
Still a bad day.
[Trickett] There we go, there we go.
[Earl] I think he, maybe, had...
thought that...
hoped that it was gonna go away.
Because when that situation happened,
he didn't call us right away.
[voice breaking]
Because, uh, I understand... why.
Because I know he didn't wanna hurt us.
But not that I could have fixed it,
but if you let us know, you know,
so we could be, you know...
Let your parents know
so that they can help you,
'cause at the end of the day,
those are gonna be the ones
that's gonna be there for you,
is your parents.
No matter what you do, you're never gonna
disappoint your parents.
Your parents gonna love you
unconditionally.
[Earl] Amen.
[De'Andre] What they say is,
it takes a village to raise a child.
Aunts, uncles, cousins, friends,
coaches, all believin' in you.
You know, all saying, you know,
"Be like De'Andre."
You know, "Follow his footsteps."
You know, to where, when that happened,
"Don't be like De'Andre."
You know,
"Don't make that mistake he made."
"Be better than him."
So it has to... That was the most
just disappointing part about that.
I made a mistake.
I made a choice, this what happens.
What I did was unacceptable.
But it's not who I am.
That's not what define me.
Everybody makes mistakes.
[De'Andre] Hut!
I don't dwell on the past.
You know, I don't care for that.
I'm all about the future.
Ready, set!
You put diamond in pressure,
you know, what happen?
[panting] Diamond'll come out, baby,
no matter what.
-[rap music playing]
-Comeback gonna be epic.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[players grunting]
[Crime Mob's "Knuck If You Buck" playing]
[players rapping along indistinctly]
♪ So if a nigga come
And run they mouth just like a ho ♪
♪ Punch him dead up in his nose ♪
♪ And stomp his ass
Down to the floor ♪
♪ Yeah, we knucking
And bucking ♪
♪ And ready to fight ♪
♪ I betcha ♪
♪ Acting a fool ♪
♪ I wish a hater would get crunk
Up on this crime mob crew ♪
♪ Now enough is enough, boy ♪
♪ Rough and get stuffed, boy ♪
♪ Luck is a must, boy
Knuck if you buck, boy ♪
♪ Knuck if you buck ♪
[Buddy] I ain't got nothing for you.
There's a lot of stuff
pent up inside of us.
We gonna take four quarters
to get rid of all of it, understand?
-[players] Yes, sir.
-Touch somebody.
♪ Knuck if you buck, boy
Knuck if you buck ♪
[Crowder] Hey, good evening
and welcome to AL May Memorial Stadium
on the campus of
Gulf Coast Community College.
EMCC with its loss last week
fell to number 11.
The Lions have got a ladder to climb
in the 2016 season.
And now we're gonna see De'Andre Johnson
in his first snap for EMCC.
♪ Knuck if you buck, boy ♪
[Wood] 23-Lock, hitch. 23-Lock.
[De'Andre] 23-Lock.
23-Lock. Rip, motion, rip! Hut!
[Crowder] The snap to Johnson.
Johnson, back to pass, surveys the field,
now steps up, tucks it.
Gonna keep it himself.
Bounces to the outside.
Ball's gonna be loose
and I think Gulf Coast has it.
[Wood] He's down!
-[Buddy] Oh, no, he's down!
-[Wood] He's down!
You gotta be kiddin' me!
[player 1] He was down.
The line was there.
[Glen Beard] He had hit the ground
and it was rolling over.
There was no doubt that the ball was down.
[Crowder] So it will be a turnover,
and Mississippi Gulf Coast
is gonna have it at their own 41-yard line
moving right to left
and EMCC can ill afford to go on the road
and turn the football over.
I gotta protect it when I scramble.
You were down, but they're...
If it's close, they're gonna give it
to 'em, that's the way it is.
You're away on the road.
So I got to make sure
I'm puttin' the ball away.
[Crowder]
De'Andre Johnson is... [chuckles]
a little frustrated and confused
by that one, as am I.
That's on me, y'all.
I gotta play better. I got to play better.
[Trickett] You have anybody around you?
No, I just rushed that shot,
I got to play better.
-Put it away!
-[De'Andre] Yeah.
[Wood] All right, here we go!
We gotta have a drive.
[Winfield] You'd love to see
that offense find its rhythm,
'cause that's really
what defines this team.
-[Crowder] Play action for Johnson.
-[Earl] Move!
[Crowder] Johnson fires down
the left sideline.
Intercepted at the 19-yard line.
Twenty-five, 30,
angles near side to the 40.
[Wood] Gave it right back to 'em.
[Crowder] He stepped in front
of that pass,
grabbed it, and brought it
all the way back to the EMCC 48.
[Winfield] Ball underthrown a little bit.
[Beard] You cannot underthrow
the vertical routes.
[De'Andre] Fuck, man.
[Crowder] Before you get frustrated
with De'Andre Johnson,
understand this is his first
collegiate action.
[Wood] Settle down and play.
I'm ready to jump out of my skin
to get after it, too,
but we got to do what we do.
If it's not there, we don't throw it.
[Winfield] The big thing
is for Johnson not to feel
like he has to do too much.
He has a lot of weapons around him.
You've got Isaiah Wright,
you've got a lot of players.
He hasn't got to score 90 points
on one play.
[player 1] Hey, defense. Hey!
-Playmaking time.
-[player 2] Let's get it.
[Winfield] EMCC got really good play
from the defensive front last week.
Let's see if they control the line
this way.
[Crowder] Back to pass.
Pressure, coming from all areas
and it's thrown over the middle,
intercepted by EMCC!
The Lions have it at the 15
and they're gonna rumble around the 20.
-It's a big boy.
-[Ed Holly] Yes!
[Winfield] Kam Carter
just got his hands up.
[Ed Holly] Hold it, hold it. Fuck yes!
Let's go, Kam!
[laughs]
-[player] Let's go!
-[Wood] That's what I'm talking about.
[Williams] Great job, baby.
Good job, 95! Good job!
We fucking eating 'em up.
We fucking eating 'em up.
They cannot play with you.
They cannot play with you.
Do you understand that?
They cannot play with you.
Let's, hey...
Get this juice going. Let's go.
[Crowder] We've had a turnover
on every series so far.
Just give me three seconds.
Then we good.
We good.
Hold the ball! Please hold the ball!
If it come out on the ground,
it's called a fumble.
[Winfield] Both teams
failing to get a lot done offensively.
[Crowder] Johnson snaps it.
Back to pass.
[spectator] Throw it, throw it!
[Crowder] Steps up, rolls to the right.
-[spectator] There it is.
-[Crowder] Fires it towards the end zone,
has a man and...
It's caught! Touchdown!
[Wood] Yes! Yes! Yes!
[Crowder]
He makes a great catch right there.
[crowd cheering]
[De'Andre] Great job, baby.
Look at you, boy. Good job.
[Crowder] That's the first touchdown pass
of De'Andre Johnson's career here at EMCC.
-First college touchdown. Good.
-[De'Andre] That's how you bounce back.
-Good, good, good.
-[De'Andre] That's how we bounce back.
[De'Andre] Hey, you and...
That was a catch.
We did our job. That's how we bounce back.
Great job last time.
Let us build from this, keep it going!
Getting it now. Starting to churn.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
[Crowder] Back to pass is Johnson,
has all day. Shifts to his right.
Pump fakes a couple of times.
Keeps it himself.
He's got the first down
and more down the far sideline.
Oh, my goodness, is he fast.
-[Buddy] Great job.
-[Earl] Yeah! Whoo-hoo!
First down! First down!
[Crowder] Snap to Johnson.
Fires it over the middle.
Caught by Brooks Shannon.
Ten, five, touchdown!
-EMCC from 22 yards out.
-[crowd cheering]
[Beard] De'Andre Johnson and
the Lions keep marching down the field.
[Crowder] And they leave it
with Wright and he fumbles the football.
That's gonna be Gulf Coast football.
As soon as he was handed the ball off,
wasn't hit. Just dropped it, Glen.
It's been a turnover fest
here in the first half.
-[Wood] What happened?
-[De'Andre] Isaiah dropped it.
[Beard] That's right.
Just alligator-armed it
and then dropped the football.
Guys, we're running out of toes
to shoot off here.
[Wood] I can't drop my head down
when I make a mistake.
-Get off the field. Let's go. Next play.
-Pick your head up.
Pick your head up. Let's go.
Pick your head up.
They have not stopped you all night.
Listen to me.
Fumble, interception, scored a touchdown,
then we fumble again.
We gotta finish.
[Crowder] The football
on the one-yard line
for Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Everybody bunched up
at the line of scrimmage.
Whitlow with a snap. Quarterback keeper,
he goes straight up the middle
and it is...
a touchdown.
So on the quarterback sneak,
from one yard out, Kalen Whitlow scores.
[Winfield] And EMCC's turned it over,
I think, four times in this first half.
[Crowder] Buddy Stephens
has done a great job
remaining calm in situations
where it's hard to remain calm.
-That's gonna...
-[buzzer sounds]
...sound the buzzer here at the half.
Gulf Coast trails EMCC, 14-7.
-[Buddy] Hey, hey, hey, listen up.
-[De'Andre] Hey, shut up!
[Buddy] Shut up, listen up.
All we gotta do is make plays!
Settle down, relax, and have fun.
Don't put so much pressure on yourself.
Enjoy it. Go out there...
Hey, stop 'em early
and then let's get this bad boy
rolling and cranking.
The only way they stop this train
is if you let 'em.
Big-time players
make big-time plays, when?
-[all] Big-time games.
-And this is a big-time game for us.
Let's go.
Let's get ready to go now, all right?
[Winfield] EMCC,
they're pretty good defensively
but they turned the ball over four times
so we're not playing very good
at the half.
[Crowder] Sophomores,
they're gonna have those early
first-quarter-into-the-second-quarter
nerves
that they're trying to shake through
because this is their first game
of the 2016 season.
But right now, they really need to get
the momentum to swing in their favor.
Let's see what they can do
to stick it in. Here's the snap.
Johnson backside pressure.
Gets rid of it quickly
with a screen pass,
spinning away from one tackle.
[crowd cheering]
Diving for the goal line...
-[whistle blows]
-Touchdown!
-[crowd cheering]
-[marching band playing]
-[Buddy] Bingo!
-[player] That's how we do, boy!
-[Crowder] Oh, my goodness, what a run!
-[Winfield] Absolutely electric.
[players screaming]
[Crowder]
I cannot believe what I just saw.
-[player] What'd I tell you?
-[indistinct chatter]
[Crowder] Boy, EMCC, Glen,
came out of the locker room
and they really seized an opportunity
to get the momentum
to swing in their favor
here in the second half.
[player] Game time! Game time!
[Winfield] Well, all of a sudden
this game has the feel
of one that EMCC
is about to really run away with.
[Crowder] Touchdown run
by Jacquez Horsley around the right side.
[cheering]
[player] We gonna win. We gonna win.
[Crowder] Tailback's gonna be clobbered
by Chauncey Rivers,
the sophomore from Atlanta, Georgia.
Cuts downfield, inside the ten, the five,
going towards the goal line
and touchdown!
[Crowder] EMCC busting
the barn doors open.
[Williams cheering]
Good job, boy! Good job!
[Winfield] Kam Carter again.
He has been dominant in the middle.
[Crowder] Vijay Miller,
gonna try to get to the pylon, he dives...
Touchdown, EMCC!
[De'Andre] We just getting started.
We just getting started.
[Crowder] The horn's gonna sound
and that's it.
-[all cheering]
-[marching band continues playing]
[players chanting]
[Winfield] Every game from here on out
is about making a statement
that you're not just better
than the other team,
but that you're much, much better.
[cheering]
-[man] There you go...
-I see everything.
It's been a long time coming
to put this team back on the field.
And you did one heck of a job tonight.
Give yourself a hand.
-Great job.
-[players cheering]
-Hey!
-Let's go, baby.
Hey. Hey, as coaches,
we got some things to work on.
As players,
you got some things to work on.
We're gonna get better.
This is game one for us, you understand?
Great job, guys.
Hey. Enjoy it, enjoy it. Let's go!
-[cheering continues]
-[indistinct chatter]
[car approaching]
[Buddy] Sure was a lot of relief
after the game.
[chuckles] You know?
I felt relieved for 55 kids,
and, you know,
eight coaches and all their families,
and there was a lot of relief.
But that run was, uh...
was phenomenal.
I don't know that I've seen anybody
lay out and fly...
like that.
[Scott Van Pelt]
There's a fellow named Isaiah Wright.
His recruitment,
starting to gain a little bit of steam
and he's showing why here.
Best thing I saw today.
-[co-host] What? Scooba!
-[Van Pelt chuckling]
[Van Pelt] They beat Mississippi
Gulf Coast Community College.
Here we go again. Wait for it.
-[co-host] What?
-[Van Pelt] I mean...
fantastic.
[Lee Anthony Patrick]
He said, "Dad, just get on your Facebook.
I have something to show you."
I said, "Okay, son."
I get off and I look at it, I see it,
and I see the little bubble pass, I say,
"Yeah, that's nice, that's to Isaiah."
But then when I see him dive
over the person, I said,
"Wow. What... Wow. I mean, wow!"
And, uh, told everybody. I called my...
I called from... [laughs]
My uncle,
-I called my aunts and 'em in Chattanooga.
-[chuckles]
I called everybody. "Did you see my son?
Did you see?" I was braggin' and braggin'.
Mmm-hmm.
I was with him when he saw it.
-He woke me up out of bed to see it again.
-[chuckling]
I was on the front porch and he made me
watch it at least four times
before I went back to sleep.
-[Camion on phone] What up?
-[Isaiah] Hey!
Hey, you watch the game?
[Camion] I missed your play
by, like... five minutes.
Fuck, man!
I'm so mad.
-I spun off one dude.
-Yeah.
And then, like, I was bobbling it,
so I had to burn one of 'em
that was coming.
So I didn't know what else to do.
'Cause he was bigger than me
and I was like,
-"I ain't 'bout to run this nigga over."
-[Camion chuckling]
So I was like,
"Fuck it, I'll just jump." [chuckles]
Yeah, I watched it this morning
with Coach Gasper.
Bro, that's ESPN-type shit, bro.
You're still not gonna beat
my record, though.
I'mma get your ass.
You ain't gonna be able to do it.
[Isaiah] My personal goal this year is
I need to break my brother record.
His touchdown record is 14. Mine was 13.
This year, that's my main goal,
is to beat his.
His older brother plays
for Indiana right now.
And played for us for, um...
a year before Isaiah got here.
[stadium announcer]
And pass and a run by Camion.
[crowd cheering]
-[crowd cheering]
-[whistle blows]
[Isaiah] That's, like, a role model to me.
That's big brother, so...
really, everything I do, I got from him.
So... People just say
I make it look better. [chuckles]
That's when Camion signed to Indiana.
Cam again. There's Cam.
And this is
when Cam played, uh, basketball.
He... That man was...
That man played everything.
He was a beast in everything,
to be honest.
This right here
is when I was in foster care.
There's me.
I was, like, four foot somethin'.
This is Camion. And this is Ez.
[Eszmone] What I do...
I pretty much do everything
they don't wanna do.
[chuckling]
Just... I just chill, and...
wash clothes and all that.
It's actually fun.
I kinda get the credit of playing football
because of my brothers.
And then, because of them, my brothers,
I'm popular, so, it's...
It equals itself out. [chuckles]
[Cade Wilkerson]
He's Isaiah's number one fan.
[laughs] He's a good kid, though.
He's a manager for us and, you know,
he does what he's supposed to do
and he keeps Isaiah at a level,
even keel, too, so that's good as well.
It looked like
you tried to bring it in and you...
fuckin' hit your damn leg.
[Eszmone] I was really good in high school
until I tore my ACL and meniscus.
[chuckling]
I got twisted up and my knee popped
and that was the end of it.
I haven't played football since.
And I was, like, "Ah... Oh, well,
I guess I'll just support Isaiah."
I was always there on film.
I was always at the end zone
when Isaiah was there.
And I was always hyping up the players
so they all got together and decided
I could come here with Isaiah.
Yeah, Ez. Well, man, that man crazy, man.
That man... [chuckles]
[stammers] That's my...
He older than me,
but it makes it seem
like I'm the older brother,
'cause I gotta take care of him.
Ez, hurry up.
Or I'll have to fight your ass.
We had a hard time growing up.
We, um...
We was in foster care for about six years.
So my mom had left us when we was little.
Like, way little.
And then my dad was in jail at the time,
so we were just bouncing around six years
foster care, foster houses to house.
And then that six years later,
my dad got out of jail
and he came and got us
and then moved on from there.
My dad, he went in after Isaiah was born.
He got to still hold Isaiah in handcuffs.
You know how it is.
He just didn't get to sign
the birth certificate.
[Isaiah] To be honest,
it's really hard to explain.
My mama, she would disappear
for a few nights or a couple weeks
and then there goes a few more weeks,
she still hasn't came back.
So my brother, Camion, the oldest,
he steps up to be the mother figure
and the father figure.
He stopped going to school
to help us go to school.
We'd literally walk in Walmart
and get some chicken or something
and just walk around the store and eat it
and just walk right on out of the store.
That was the way we found our way to eat.
We ain't had no bed. We slept on floors.
We all bundled up, slept together.
And then, next thing you know,
there goes DCS and then they take us.
I mean, we bounced around, I'd say,
about a good six, seven homes.
[stammers] To be honest, we didn't take...
If you gave us rules,
we didn't listen to 'em.
We made our own rules.
We made our own life.
We made our own decisions.
Eszmone...
When we was in foster care,
he was tied up.
With duct tape and everything.
Like, people don't even know that.
And then, we...
we'd literally got fist-fought.
We literally fist-fought
our foster parents.
We was the type of family of
"If you mess with one of us,
you gonna mess with all of us.
We all gonna jump in."
So she said, "Well, all right.
Then we just gonna split y'all up."
And then we all stood up
and was like, "Oh, hell no.
We ain't going for that.
So if he going, we going."
So they just sent us all off
to another house.
God blessed us to stay together, I guess,
through that six-year period.
[Eszmone] That had
a big, big impact on our life,
being, kind of, alone for a while.
And, like, just being with each other,
it really brought us together.
I know, like, everybody
has the same thing, "Family is first,"
but, like, we take ours to the next level,
like, we're so strongly attached, like...
it's... incredible.
[Buddy] No, no! Hey!
Hey, get back in here!
-No! No! No!
-[all clamoring and yelling]
Get back! Get back! Get back!
[Eszmone] Well, I forgot when and where,
but he disappeared
for a couple of seconds,
and I could not find him.
And so I ran out there, looking for him.
And when I found him, six other guys came
and tried to hit him with a helmet,
so that's when I came in,
jumped over and hit the first dude,
pushed the other dude over.
It was, like, just,
"Just back off my brother. Just back up."
And all six people backed off from me
and just walked off.
The love that they had,
and the tight grip
and the tight bond
that they had with each other
while they was in foster care,
I believe that's where it was,
'cause they fought hard
to get up out that system,
and they fought hard
to get us back together with them
and they fightin' hard right now.
So that's a whole lot of things
that my kids got on their back,
but it doesn't even show
because they always wear that smile
on their face.
To me, my soul was hurt
because I wasn't there, you understand?
I wasn't there being the father
that I was supposed to be.
I tell 'em, I said,
"I done did enough time
for all of y'all in this house.
So let that time be on me.
And leave the freedom to y'all."
[Isaiah] Football's what saved my life.
'Cause I'd probably still be
on the streets, doing the same stuff,
and getting into trouble,
getting arrested, and all that.
-[Wagner] Tim, how are your grades?
-[Tim] I know I probably got an F in math.
[Wagner sighs]
Well, do you need to go to tutoring?
-Yep.
-[Wagner] Well, let's go.
-Why do you have a F in Human Growth?
-[Tim] Let me see it.
[Tim chuckles] 'Cause it's hard.
I still got that B in that history, huh?
[Wagner] Good. What do you need
to be doing for Human Growth?
It looks like you have some zeros
that you can still do.
You have a zero on chapter five
and six quiz that's still open.
-Okay.
-That'll help your grade.
Somebody gonna give me
the answers for that bad boy.
I always get the answers
for them quizzes and something.
You need to do
this goal-setting assignment.
I got it in my book bag.
I typed it up already.
-No, you haven't.
-It's on Canvas...
-How you gonna tell me where it's at?
-It's on Canvas?
-Log in and do it. Now.
-I'm playing. It ain't.
-It is--
-I gotta go to tutor.
-Tim...
-I'll be back. I'll be back.
[Wagner sighs]
[Wagner] Tim... You know,
Tim was an academic issue at Louisville,
and, I mean, I think
academics is hard for him,
and I think he plays that joke
of being special ed...
And, you know, he jokes around about that.
But I think that's his cover-up
for the fact that he, in his mind,
he doesn't think he can do it.
You know, and, like, it is a struggle,
and it is hard and, like,
that's his only explanation, I think,
is like, "Well, I must be special ed."
-[music playing]
-[Wagner] Turn that down.
Turn it down, please.
Gotta ride with me one time,
Miss Brittany.
-Turn it down. Now.
-♪ You ain't getting your way... ♪
[Tim] Y'all, I can't never get buck
with Miss Brittany, bro.
She always gotta cry, bro.
Hey. Miss Brittany...
Before I leave,
you gotta get buck one time now.
-I don't...
-Why not?
'Cause you...
You won't... You don't listen.
-I do listen to you.
-You don't.
I respect you to the fullest.
I keep it 100 with you, Miss Brittany.
You have a 64 in the math lab.
-Oh, for real?
-Mm-hmm.
That good or bad?
I mean, it coming up, though.
It used to be lower than that.
[Wagner] I mean, the kid's hyper.
That's it. [chuckles]
He's hyper.
[stutters] You know, he's not...
He's smart. He can do it.
But he's been... It's almost
like he's just been brainwashed
to believe that he's not smart enough.
So somebody's told that kid
that he's special ed,
that he's not smart, that he's stupid,
that he needs an A/B test.
I mean, somebody's put all that
in his head which, you know,
that kind of stuff just makes me upset
because... it was probably somebody
in education
that started telling him that
at a young age
and now he believes it.
It's a special time to play at home.
It's our first time all year.
This place is gonna be packed.
It's gonna be rocking.
Northeast is 2-0.
And they're gonna try to do what they do.
We have to do what we do and do it faster.
We'd better be 100%! Let's go!
[Trickett] You got a game tomorrow. Focus!
[Wood] Stretch good. Stretch good.
2-0, baby.
They're 2-0, coming in here,
fixing on putting their first L
on their record.
Today, we have to be locked in.
We're not gonna have a good day.
We're gonna have a great day.
[Crowder] And you think, "Okay.
45-7 win at Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Nowhere to go but up, right?"
Well, they dropped two spots,
to number 14.
Northeast is a team that's, uh...
They're 2-0.
If you win that one,
especially if you win it big,
you would see no reason
why EMCC wouldn't rise in the polls.
I think this team's up for the challenge.
EMCC knows nothing
but winning on this field.
Home games are fun, guys.
Because our people are here supporting us.
If you haven't ever experienced
a home game in Scooba,
it's special, guys.
Trust me, those stands
are gonna be packed.
Some crazy guy's gonna be howling.
Growling.
Seven o'clock tomorrow night,
somebody's fixin'
on getting' an ass whoopin'.
♪ Did you pray today?
Did you pray today? ♪
♪ I could dick you down
On some gangster shit ♪
♪ Did you pray today?
I could put you down ♪
♪ On the gangster shit ♪
♪ I could put you down
With some gangster shit ♪
♪ Did you pray today?
Did you have a baby? ♪
♪ You got ventilation ♪
♪ Whoo-ooh ♪
♪ Did you pray today?
Did you have a baby? ♪
♪ You got ventilation ♪
♪ Thugger! ♪
[cheering]
[Crowder] First game of the 2016 season
at Sullivan-Windham Field.
Only one loss here since 2011.
Northeast is the opponent tonight
as we open up North Division play.
The Lions, now 1-1 on the year,
trying to get to 2-1 and go above .500.
[Winfield] I think this is an offense
that we have just begun
to see what they're capable of.
[De'Andre] Ready, set!
[grunting]
[Crowder] Here's the snap.
Play action to Wright.
He's gonna tuck it himself.
Inside the fifteen, the ten, the five.
Gets to the goal line, hit there,
but he's gonna be in for the touchdown.
EMCC's gonna score.
[De'Andre] Take your weak ass home!
[Buddy] That's a good job, guys!
That's a good job, guys!
Give me an ammonia towel.
Give me one of the ammonia towels.
Hey, y'all need a towel? You need a towel?
You need an ammonia towel?
Anybody want one of these?
They smell so good. They smell so good.
They smell so good.
Nobody want one? All right.
All right, now it's our turn.
We gotta do what we gotta do.
You ready to go? You ready to go?
We're running 31-Cover-2 first.
[Crowder] First quarter, 7-nothing.
EMCC scored on their opening try.
Northeast trying to do the same.
Cunningham fires it on the slant,
caught in the end zone.
Touchdown, Northeast.
Nine-yard touchdown strike.
Let's go, guys! Let's go! Let's go!
We need some energy! Let's go!
Where that energy at?
Hey, we need some energy.
Hey, we need energy! Energy!
Let's go! Let's go!
[Crowder] We're tied
at seven in the first quarter.
Let's see what EMCC can do here.
Isaiah Wright stands inside the five.
It goes into his hands at the seven.
It's Isaiah Wright,
tries to come around near side.
Out across the ten. Across the 15.
He has a lot of blockers.
20, 25, 30.
Tries to find a hole, he does.
He's out across the 40.
And he's going to be drug down.
[whistle blows]
Just came flying in there
and pounded him on the turf.
-[Bontrager] You good?
-[Eszmone] Let's go.
[Bontrager] You all right? Talk to me.
-[Isaiah] My head.
-[Bontrager] Your head?
[Isaiah] I'm dizzy, kind of.
[Bontrager] Hey, stay down and talk to me.
-You remember what happened?
-[Isaiah] I'm good.
Come on. Let me up. Shit.
-[crowd applauding]
-[Bontrager] Hey...
[Isaiah] I'm good. [chuckles]
-[Bontrager] You good?
-[Isaiah] Yeah.
You dizzy?
I ain't dizzy, but I got that headache.
Okay.
[stadium announcer] The ball's spotted
at the Northeast Mississippi 48-yard line.
Look at me. Okay.
All right. Take a second.
[stadium announcer] Pass falls incomplete.
Second down and ten.
[woman] Does the light hurt your head?
When I look up at 'em.
[Eszmone] Isaiah...
I know you don't wanna do it,
but you have to put that helmet back on.
You gonna have to get us hype.
The choice is yours.
I don't want you
risking getting a worse...
a worse concussion
than what you already have.
But we need somebody to score.
-[trainer] How're you feelin'?
-Mmm. Fine.
How's your head?
I mean, it's there,
but it's not like how it was.
All right. What about dizzy?
All right. What about lights?
They bothering you?
I mean, barely.
All right, let's look at you at halftime,
see if you can go second half, okay?
[Isaiah] Shit.
To be honest,
I don't even know where the fuck I'm at.
[stadium announcer] Gain takes the ball
to the 36-yard line. First down, Lions!
-[Isaiah] Holy shit.
-[man] Sit down.
[Isaiah] That bitch is starting to come.
I just got dizzy as a motherfucker.
Oh, my God.
[crowd cheering]
[Isaiah] Oh, my God!
All right. Isaiah...
-How're you doing? Sit down.
-[Isaiah] Oh! [sighs]
-[trainer] You okay?
-No, that shit just started hurtin'.
[trainer] You're getting' a headache?
[Isaiah groaning] Fuck!
It's all right. [chuckles]
[trainer] Your whole head?
-[Isaiah groans]
-[trainer] Over here?
[Isaiah] That light hurt.
[groans] Fuck!
[Crowder] Johnson, with the snap.
Gonna leave it on the ground.
Busting it right up the middle
is Price towards the goal line.
Did he score? Touchdown, EMCC!
And a three-yard touchdown run. 13-7.
-EMCC has regained the lead.
-[Isaiah] Ow!
I'm dizzy.
[Isaiah groans]
Oh, my God, bro...
[Crowder] And here's the snap.
Here's the kick... Blocked by EMCC!
The Lions have a chance
to pick it up, and they do.
They're running with it.
Down the near sideline.
Inside the 40. Inside the 30.
Inside the 20.
Ten! Five! Touchdown, EMCC!
And EMCC leads it by 23, 33-10...
Fuck. [groaning]
[Crowder] It's rolling loose
around the five-yard line.
Scooped up, score! Touchdown, EMCC...
Here's the snap.
He gives it with Price,
goes up the middle again,
and Price has his second touchdown
of the game.
Quick snap, Price. Cuts down the field,
gets to the goal line.
Scores! Touchdown, EMCC...
Inside the 20, inside the 15.
Inside the ten. He spins free.
Five, touchdown!
[Crowder]
Congratulations to Isaiah Wright.
You remember the old dive
into the end zone
from the five-yard line?
It made SportsCenter.
Scott Van Pelt. I think that was, like,
the best thing he saw that day.
[Winfield] Well, it was certainly
something worth recognition.
You don't see many like that...
[Crowder] ...EMCC is gonna win it
in a big way.
54-10 over their North Division rival
from Booneville, Mississippi,
-and EMCC flexes its muscles.
-[buzzer sounds]
[fireworks exploding]