The [Recruiting] Matrix

Charlie Weis: Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you are a blue chip. What this is, you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something amazing about the level of your talent. You don't know what it is, but it's there...like a blitizing linebacker, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to my program. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Blue Chip: The National Championship?

CW: Do you want to know....what…it…is?

[Blue Chip nods]

CW: The National Championship is everywhere. It's all around us, even in this very stadium. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on NBC and see us on national TV. You can feel it when you go to practice, when you hit the gym, when you are kicking ass on the field.

The National Championship is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth.

Blue Chip: What truth?

CW: That you are nasty, Blue Chip. Like everyone else, you were born into football, born into a game that you cannot fully comprehend or taste or touch. A prison...for your talent....Unfortunately, no one can be…told…what the National Championship is...you have to experience it for yourself.

[CW opens a container which holds two pills : a red one, and a blue and gold one. He puts one in each hand, and holds them out to the Blue Chip.]

CW: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the red pill, you go to somewhere like USC and the story ends. You wake up and believe...whatever you want to believe…that you really had a shot at the National Championship but you chose a program that depended almost entirely on three players for the past three years. You take the blue and gold pill.....you start in my program...and I show you just how deep our offense goes.

[The Blue Chip pauses for an instant, then reaches for the blue and gold pill. He swallows it down with a glass of water, and looks at CW.]

CW: Remember...all I'm offering you is the National Championship: nothing more…nothing less…

[CW half smiles at the Blue Chip.]

CW: Follow me.....I’ve got a new athletic facility that I want you to see…

-RENO

(thanks for the submission, First and Gold)