MD - Chapter 270: Andrew's choiceMarch 13
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Two days had passed since the historic final at Rose Bowl Stadium.
For the second consecutive year, a high school championship game had been played in a stadium where many had once thought something like that was impossible, perhaps with the exception of a few powerhouse teams from Texas.
The game had broken records again, surpassing the previous year's final, which had drawn approximately fifty-five thousand spectators.
This year's final had more than seventy thousand people in the stands.
Andrew was at home.
That night, a family dinner was being prepared. His uncles, cousins, grandfather, Gloria, and Manny had all come over.
The house was full.
In the kitchen, Mitchell and Cam were busy preparing dinner with help from Claire and Gloria.
In the living room, Phil, far less interested in anything gourmet, was playing Wii with Haley, Alex, Manny, and Luke.
Outside, in the backyard, Andrew was with Jay. They had walked a few yards away and were tossing passes with a football.
It was eight degrees Celsius, cold considering it was Los Angeles.
Because of that, Andrew was wearing a black sweatshirt. Jay, on the other hand, was wearing a thick jacket.
The ball left Andrew's non-dominant hand. It spun through the air as it traveled across the yard.
Jay had to take a few quick steps to the side to catch it.
"What kind of pass was that?" Jay asked, frowning slightly, his tone critical.
Andrew shrugged. "It's my non-dominant hand. What do you expect?"
Jay looked at him for a few seconds and finally said, "I know, but at this distance your accuracy should be one hundred percent, even with your left."
Andrew laughed. "Alright, I admit it. I just wanted you to run a little so you could warm up. I don't want your old bones freezing."
Jay snorted, though a smile appeared on his face. "You go warm up, kid."
He threw the ball back, this time harder and with little direction, though not so badly that it couldn't be caught.
Andrew burst out laughing as he took several quick steps and even jumped to reach it.
"Hey! It was just a joke!" he said as he caught the ball in midair.
"Yeah, whatever," Jay muttered.
He then put his hands in his jacket pockets and started walking back toward the house.
But before going inside, he sat down on a wooden bench near the back door.
Andrew, still holding the football, walked over. When he saw his grandfather give a short nod, he dropped down beside him.
For a few seconds, both of them stared out into the yard while Andrew slowly spun the football between his hands, passing it from one to the other and idly playing with it.
Finally, Jay broke the silence, "Incredible season, huh?"
Andrew nodded, "No doubt."
Even without counting the media records, the television ratings, the scale of the stage, the number of people who had attended the game, he had won practically every team award possible.
And individually, he had broken several historic high school football records: most touchdowns in a four-year career, most total passing yards, along with several other marks that had fallen this year.
Because of all that, it wasn't an exaggeration when many people called him the greatest player in the history of high school football.
Jay glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.
"And now comes the hard part," he added.
Andrew immediately knew what he meant and nodded slowly.
The decision.
Jay turned his head to look at Andrew and said without hesitation, "I'm proud of you, boy."
Andrew opened his eyes slightly in surprise and turned toward him. It wasn't common to hear Jay say something like that. It wasn't that he had never done it before, Jay had always had a close relationship with Andrew, but it definitely wasn't the norm.
Jay didn't backtrack or pretend he hadn't said it like he sometimes did.
He held eye contact and placed his large, heavy hand on Andrew's shoulder.
"Very proud," he repeated, giving him a couple of firm pats.
Andrew kept looking at him, caught off guard by the moment and not entirely sure what to say.
Fortunately, Jay kept talking.
"And I'm not just saying it because of everything you achieved on the field," he said. "It's not just the touchdowns, the records, or the fact that the whole country is talking about you."
He shook his head slightly.
"I'm saying it because of how you did it. The way you behave, the way you treat people, your opponents, the way you play, with respect and with your head on straight. You're not just a once-in-twenty-years prodigy. You're a good person."
"I am not like Clausen," Andrew joked lightly.
Jay let out a dry laugh. "Exactly. Though if you had, I would've corrected that a long time ago."
There was a brief silence before Jay asked, "Do you remember the first gift I ever gave you?"
Andrew didn't hesitate, "The bicycle."
Jay nodded, "Your sixth birthday," he said, smiling slightly at the memory.
Andrew smiled too. "I remember I took the training wheels off and my parents nearly had a heart attack."
Jay laughed again, "Of course I remember. You had just come from hitting your head so hard you ended up in the hospital… so they were a little paranoid about keeping you safe. Especially when they saw you racing around at full speed while your friends were running behind you."
Andrew looked down for a moment, "That wasn't very considerate of me," he muttered.
"That same day," Jay continued, "after your friends left, we stayed out in the yard and started throwing the ball around. That's when I knew we were going to get along."
Andrew looked at him curiously.
Jay shrugged, "Not because I thought you'd end up here. Honestly, I figured you'd play football in school like any other kid. Maybe a good player, maybe a decent prospect, one of those guys who ends up at some not-very-important college and nobody ever hears about him again."
Andrew smiled, "You really had faith in me," he said sarcastically.
"There was no way to know from just that one day that you'd turn out this good," Jay replied calmly. "Though it didn't take long for me to realize you were different."
He shrugged.
"Anyway, whatever decision you make, I'll support it one hundred percent. You already know my opinion, and everyone else's, about each university."
He looked at the football Andrew was holding, "But in the end, it's entirely in your hands."
There was a small pause.
Andrew lowered his gaze to the ball he was holding, "Thanks, Grandpa," he said, more quietly than usual.
The same player who had made entire defenses tremble, the quarterback who had just been named MVP in the state final in front of seventy thousand people, was now sitting on a wooden bench in his backyard with a slightly shy expression, not quite sure how to react to a simple compliment from his grandfather.
While that quiet scene was unfolding outside the house, inside the living room the atmosphere was very different.
On the television, a Wii bowling game was in full swing.
The teams were:
Phil and Haley
versus
Alex, Luke, and Manny.
"Strike!" Phil shouted, celebrating dramatically as he threw his arms into the air.
Haley rolled her eyes at the celebration as if it were the final of a championship, though she also smiled since they were winning and she didn't want to lose.
On one of the couches, Lily was completely perched on the seat with her legs crossed and her arms folded, staring at the screen with a clearly unimpressed expression.
"How boring…" Lily muttered.
Haley heard her and turned her head to look at her, "Do you want to play? You can be on my team if you want," she said, waving the Wii remote.
Lily didn't even bother turning her head and kept staring at the screen.
"Bowling sucks," she replied.
Then she pushed herself off the couch with her hands, dropped to the floor with a small hop, and started walking toward the kitchen.
"I'll see if there's something more fun," she muttered as she disappeared down the hallway toward where her parents were.
Haley watched her leave, "What an attitude…" she commented.
Manny, who had also been watching her, shrugged slightly, "The only person she's sweet with is Andrew," he said. "With the rest of us she's always in sarcasm mode. Her parents' fault…"
"And my mom's," Alex added.
Phil chuckled, "It's true. Andrew walks into a room and Lily turns into the sweetest kid in the world," he said.
Meanwhile, Lily walked into the kitchen.
There, Gloria, Claire, Cam, and Mitchell were coordinating almost like a small team: Claire was checking a tray in the oven, Gloria was quickly chopping vegetables while talking animatedly, and Cam and Mitchell were debating in front of the counter with several sauces open.
Lily walked up and stood beside them.
"I'm bored."
Cam glanced up for a second, "Why don't you go play with your cousins in the living room?" he said kindly. "Your dads are in the middle of a complicated situation."
Lily frowned slightly, "Complicated?"
Cam gestured toward the sauces as if it were a serious matter, "We're trying to decide which sauce goes best with tonight's chicken. And believe me, it's a difficult conversation."
Lily looked at the sauces. Then she looked at Cam.
"Cry me a river."
Mitchell immediately turned his head, somewhere between shocked and offended, "Lily!" he exclaimed. "I'm not loving this attitude. You seem a little mean."
"Sorry. Should I call you a whambulance?" Lily shot back.
Before Mitchell could respond, she turned around and ran out of the kitchen.
There was a second of silence.
Claire put a hand to her forehead, "Wow."
Gloria let out a small laugh while continuing to chop, "That girl is going to rule the world someday."
Mitchell sighed, "She's barely six years old and already talks like that…"
Claire glanced at him with a mixture of amusement and sympathy, "Oh, Mitch… you guys are in trouble. When she's a teenager this will be much worse."
Mitch made a small grimace, "I don't like the sound of that."
He knew that with Lily's personality, her teenage years would be complicated, much more than Andrew's, who had been practically perfect. Yes, he went to parties sometimes like any normal kid, but he had never caused the typical teenage problems.
Lily, not finding anything interesting to do other than wait for dinner, went out to the backyard to find her brother.
And it didn't take long for her to ask him to play.
"Let's go play with Legos!" she said, her tone of voice immediately changing as Andrew lifted her up.
Her attitude was completely different from the one she had with everyone else.
"I'm going to check how the food's coming along," Jay said as he got up from the bench and walked toward the back door of the house.
Andrew went inside as well, but instead of heading to the kitchen he went straight toward the stairs.
He went up to his room with Lily still in his arms.
There they started playing with Legos, building towers, improvised houses, and small vehicles that Lily kept dismantling and rebuilding in her own way. After a while, the game turned into a small tickle war that made Lily burst into laughter several times.
But little by little the girl's energy began to fade.
She ended up sitting on Andrew's lap, resting her head against his chest.
It didn't take long after that.
Her eyes slowly closed until she finally fell asleep.
Andrew looked at her for a few seconds, smiling slightly.
It made sense.
It had been Sunday, and the day had been quite busy. They had gone to the park in the afternoon, and Lily had spent a long time running and playing outside, using up all her energy.
Now she was simply exhausted.
Andrew couldn't move much without waking her, so he stayed sitting quietly in the room with Lily asleep in his arms.
His gaze eventually drifted to a whiteboard in front of his desk. Over the past few weeks he had written many things on it: the five universities he had visited, their offensive schemes, advantages, disadvantages, and quick notes he had added whenever a new thought crossed his mind.
Thinking about that, he remembered what Jay had told him minutes earlier: You already know my opinion, and everyone else's, about each university.
Jay, his uncles, his cousins… practically the entire family had given him a fairly deep analysis a few days earlier to help him decide. They had researched, compared programs, playing styles, quarterback development, recent history, everything.
Andrew had been quite surprised. He hadn't expected such a detailed analysis from them.
They had reviewed each university with fairly solid arguments, almost as if they were evaluating an important investment. And something Andrew had appreciated a lot was that at no point had they tried to push him emotionally.
No one had told him to choose a university just because it was close to them.
Something very different from what had happened with his Tucker family in Missouri, who had been much more emotional about the subject, trying to convince him to go to Missouri simply because it was their state and they wanted to see him play there, close to them for once.
That was why the Pritchett-Dunphy analysis had seemed especially honest to him.
And what surprised him the most was the final conclusion they had reached.
For them, the best university for Andrew to succeed and develop as a player was Georgia.
In second place they had put Stanford.
Third place went to Texas.
Fourth, Missouri.
And in last place, UCLA.
The university closest to them. The one that would allow his family to attend all of his home games, at least.
The one that would be the most comfortable option for them.
Despite all that, they had placed it last.
Not because it was a bad program, but compared to the other options they simply saw it as the least favorable for his development.
According to the family's analysis, Georgia and Stanford were the strongest options.
They weren't dominant dynasties at the moment, but both had solid programs, offenses closer to a pro-style system, and above all a clear need for a difference-making quarterback who could take the team to the next level and contend for a national championship.
Texas A&M and the Missouri Tigers were good programs, but the outlook there was more complicated.
Both were entering the SEC, the toughest conference in the country. Competing there was already brutal even for established programs, and for teams that hadn't consistently dominated in the Big-12, trying to do so in the SEC seemed like an even greater challenge.
Returning to UCLA, its potential was enormous.
Despite not fully awakening as a program in the last few decades, it was still a university with history, first-class facilities, and an enormous fan base. And football was the sport that generated the most media attention and money for the institution.
And they had something very few programs could boast:
The Rose Bowl as their home stadium.
The most iconic stadium in college football, host of the most prestigious bowl game in the country, practically second only to the national championship itself.
The problem was the current moment of the program.
They had fired their head coach just a few days ago.
And yesterday, with Neuheisel already officially dismissed, UCLA had played the Pac-12 Championship Game, the first since that new conference championship format had been created.
The result had been 49–31 in favor of Oregon.
It wasn't a historic blowout like the 50–0 loss to USC, but it also wasn't a game UCLA controlled at any point.
In the first quarter, Oregon struck quickly and went up 21–7.
By halftime the lead was already comfortable, and the game clearly seemed to be tilting toward the Ducks. In the third quarter UCLA managed to close the gap to 35–24, and for a moment it looked like they might get back into the game.
But Oregon responded immediately with two consecutive touchdowns, extending the lead to 49–24 and essentially putting the game away.
UCLA scored another touchdown late to make the score look better, but the reality was clear: Oregon had controlled the game for almost the entire night.
After the game, UCLA moved with surprising speed.
Following Saturday's game, earlier that same morning, Sunday, it was officially announced that the university had hired Jim Mora as the new head coach.
Just as Andrew remembered from his first life.
And only a few hours later, in the afternoon, Dan Guerrero had asked to meet with Andrew.
He wanted him to speak directly with Mora.
Andrew accepted. During that meeting he also met the offensive coordinator Mora had already received approval to bring onto the staff.
The proposal they presented to him was practically the same one they had explained before with Neuheisel, only now the message was different.
It was no longer about continuing something.
It was about rebuilding the program from scratch.
Literally.
'The decision is already made anyway,' Andrew thought as he looked at Lily sleeping and gently brushed a hand across her forehead.
He had already made up his mind.
There was no point in going over it again and again.
"Dinner time, Andrew, Lily!" Cam's voice called from downstairs.
Andrew carefully woke Lily. The girl opened her eyes, still half-asleep, rubbed her face, and the two of them headed to the dining room.
The conversation flowed for several minutes, jokes, comments, and anecdotes from the week.
Until at one point Andrew, calmly wiping his mouth with a napkin, said, "Oh, right. I already know which university I'm going to."
The conversations stopped instantly.
Phil nearly choked on a bite of food and began coughing several times while Claire patted his back, though she didn't stop staring at Andrew in surprise.
"So soon?" Claire asked.
Several people nodded at the same time.
They had all been thinking the same thing. They believed Andrew would take two or three more days to make the decision, especially after everything that had happened with UCLA.
"Yeah," Andrew replied with a small shrug. "It was delayed a bit because of the UCLA situation, but my last official visit was more than three weeks ago. I've already had time to analyze everything and think it through."
It wasn't like he needed much more time anyway.
"So what did you choose?" Haley asked.
The table fell completely silent.
No one moved their utensils.
Everyone was looking at him.
Andrew calmly cut a piece of chicken and answered as if he were commenting on the weather.
"UCLA."
The table fell silent again.
Even Luke wasn't talking, fully aware of how important the moment was, which already said a lot.
"UCLA?" Gloria repeated.
"UCLA!?" Haley repeated this time, louder. "Why are you saying it so calmly?"
Andrew looked at her, confused, "How do you want me to say it? It's just where I'm going to study and play football."
Cam raised a hand theatrically, "You could add a little more drama to the announcement… you know, some emotion. This is practically the most important moment of your academic and athletic life."
But before he could continue, Jay intervened with a much more serious tone.
"UCLA?" he repeated, staring at him. "Why?" he asked.
There was no excitement in his voice. For him, UCLA had clearly ranked last in the analysis, especially compared to Georgia and Stanford. Against Missouri and Texas it might have been comparable.
He wanted to understand Andrew's reasoning.
"The staff change works in my favor," Andrew began. "If Neuheisel had stayed, honestly it wouldn't have been very tempting. Four years in the program and he didn't manage to build anything solid."
He took a sip from his glass of water and continued.
"But now it's a complete reset. That, plus the potential of the program, playing home games in the Rose Bowl, and having a starting spot almost guaranteed in my first season made me choose them."
"It's true that the staff change helps, but did Mora convince you?" Alex asked, resting her elbows on the table.
Mora wasn't a superstar head coach. But he had NFL experience. His best season had been in 2004 with the Atlanta Falcons. He finished 11–5 and reached the NFC Championship Game in his first year as head coach.
That gave him a reputation as a solid defensive coach and a good locker-room leader.
But afterward the team declined and he was fired in 2007.
Then in 2009 he was hired by the Seattle Seahawks. He finished 5–11 and was fired after just one season. That damaged his reputation quite a bit.
That was why, when UCLA hired him now, the general reaction had been cautious. There was excitement because he brought an NFL mindset to the program, but there were also doubts because of his recent time in Seattle and his more defensive profile rather than an offensive one.
Andrew looked at Alex.
He couldn't tell them that he knew something they didn't.
That Mora's first season at UCLA would be very good. That the team would finish as Pac-12 South champions, break the streak and finally beat USC, and that they would play a Pac-12 Championship Game they fully deserved, one they would lose by a narrow margin to Stanford.
After that they would play in the Holiday Bowl. An important bowl, though not a top-tier one, usually somewhere between the top eight and top twelve bowls in the country.
In other words, Mora would manage to lift the program in just one year.
And that made him think.
What would happen if he, the player considered the greatest high school player in history, arrived at that program?
How much could he change that team?
They could beat Stanford and reach the Rose Bowl, since the Pac-12 champion went directly to that bowl if it didn't have a record strong enough to qualify for the BCS National Championship Game.
Of course, UCLA's real record that year had been something like 9–5 or 10–4, good numbers, but still far from what was needed to compete for a national title.
But Andrew wouldn't be going alone.
Steve would go with him, a top-10 wide receiver in his class with whom he already had perfect chemistry. And it was inevitable to wonder what other recruits might decide to go to UCLA simply because he had chosen that program. The team's quality could improve very quickly.
It wasn't unrealistic to imagine competing to win the Pac-12, playing in the Rose Bowl, or even aiming to qualify for the national championship. In two or three years, that is, during the time he would be there before leaving for the NFL.
But he couldn't say any of that.
"I know Mora isn't the most spectacular head coach they could have hired," Andrew finally said, "but he convinced me. And a big part of that is that he brought Norm Chow as offensive coordinator."
Several heads around the table nodded when they heard that name.
Norm Chow was a highly respected figure in college football.
For years he had been considered one of the best offensive coordinators in the country. He had worked at programs like BYU, USC, and Utah, and had been the architect of very successful offenses that developed elite quarterbacks.
He was known for running pro-style systems, heavily focused on quarterback reads, passing accuracy, and offensive concepts that translated well to professional football.
And his presence balanced one of the main criticisms of Mora, that he was a coach much more focused on defense than offense.
With Chow in charge of the offense, the program could have a very strong balance.
Andrew didn't remember exactly whether Chow had been the offensive coordinator Mora had brought to UCLA in his previous life.
It was possible Mora had deliberately looked for a coordinator much more oriented toward a pro-style offense, betting that Andrew would feel more comfortable in that system.
He didn't know for certain.
But the important thing was that Chow was perfect for him. And that had also influenced his choice of UCLA. He could learn a tremendous amount working with an offensive coordinator who had so much experience developing quarterbacks and managing complex offenses.
The offensive playbook could not only be built around him, as they had promised, it would be designed by someone who truly had the knowledge and experience to construct a complete pro-style attack, not simply a system based on spread offense or fast tempo.
"It's great that you've already made your decision," Mitch said, not quite sure what else to add.
Around the table everyone made small nods, murmured , or brief comments.
In theory it should have been a moment of celebration: Andrew would stay close to home, continue playing nearby, everyone would be able to see him more often and attend his games like they had for all these years.
But the announcement had been so calm and straightforward that the moment ended up feeling a little anticlimactic.
Little by little the dinner returned to a more relaxed atmosphere. Conversations resumed, jokes came back, and the good mood at the table returned stronger than before.
Andrew hadn't said it out loud, but one of the reasons for his decision was also them.
His family.
And especially Lily.
Going to another state would mean missing three important years of her childhood. Of course they would visit him, or he would visit them, but it wouldn't be the same.
And after that would come the NFL. In theory he would enter the April 2015 draft. If he remembered correctly, Tampa Bay had had the worst record at that time.
If he ended up being drafted high, his professional career would most likely keep him far from home for many years. That would mean missing not only Lily's childhood, but also her pre-teen years and part of her adolescence.
If he was going to miss a stage of his life away from his sister and his family, he would rather it be during his professional NFL career, not during his college years.
He had to take advantage of the fact that in college he had the ability to choose.
That was why many elite prospects did the same.
If they had the opportunity to play at a strong program close to home, they usually chose it. Even national stars had done it. Players like Barkley, Tebow, Leinart, among many others, had preferred to stay in their home state and play in front of their families rather than go thousands of miles away.
That was why programs from distant states always knew they were competing at a certain disadvantage in those recruitments.
Dinner ended, and the guests soon began to leave.
Jay, Gloria, and Manny were the first to head out, saying goodbye at the door with a couple of hugs and a few quick remarks.
Then Phil, Claire, Haley, Alex, and Luke followed. After saying their goodbyes, they all got into the car.
The drive began in silence.
Phil drove calmly through the nighttime streets while everyone looked out the window or straight ahead, still processing what had happened during dinner.
Andrew was staying.
When honestly, the outlook had seemed unfavorable. For weeks everyone had thought he would end up leaving for somewhere far away.
Phil didn't say anything for a few seconds.
Then he reached out and touched the car stereo.
A second later, a very recognizable song began to play.
🎵 I've paid my dues…
🎵 Time after time…
🎵 I've done my sentence…
🎵 But committed no crime…
"Queen?" Haley murmured, stopping her gaze from the window.
"Exactly!" Phil exclaimed.
Right at that moment the song built in intensity and reached the chorus.
Phil couldn't help himself, "We are the champions… my frieeends…" he sang enthusiastically while lightly tapping the steering wheel with his fingers.
No one needed him to explain anything.
The reason why he was singing was pretty obvious.
"Did you seriously have this song ready?" Alex murmured, adjusting her glasses.
Phil smiled, "Honey, in life you have to be prepared for the big moments."
Right then the chorus came in again.
Phil rolled down the window and stuck his head slightly outside while singing even louder.
"We are the champions…"
On the sidewalk, a man walking his dog stopped and stared at him strangely for a second.
However, after a few moments, he briefly raised his arm with a clenched fist in a gesture of approval before continuing on his way.
Haley and Alex looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Claire, from the passenger seat, simply let out a laugh and shook her head.
Luke, from the middle seat in the back, raised his arms.
"GO BRUINS!"
…
At the Pritchett house, Jay had already arrived. As soon as he set his keys on the table, he looked at Manny with energy.
"Let's play chess!"
Manny, who was taking off his coat and placing it over the back of a chair, looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"It's late, and I have class tomorrow."
"Come on! Just one game," Jay replied, already walking toward another room. "I'll go get the board, and while I'm at it, a bottle of wine I've got stored away."
He was clearly in a very good mood.
Manny watched him disappear down the hallway. He knew he didn't have many options. He sighed.
"That's strange," Manny murmured. "I always destroy him at chess, and he hates losing. I don't understand why he wants to play now…"
Gloria, who was next to him tidying up a few things on the table, looked at him with a smile.
"Isn't it obvious?"
Manny turned his head toward her, "What?"
"He's happy," Gloria replied naturally. "Andrew is staying here."
Manny thought about it for a second and nodded, "That makes sense."
Then he looked at his mother, studying her.
"You're happy too."
Gloria didn't try to hide it at all, "Of course I'm happy. I didn't learn the rules of a sport I didn't even know just for him to go play on the other side of the country."
…
Back at Andrew's house, in Mitch and Cam's bedroom, the main light was off and only the bedside lamps on each side of the bed were on. Both of them were already in pajamas, ready to sleep.
Cam was hugging Mitchell tightly and crying.
He sniffled dramatically into his shoulder.
"Our baby… is staying home…" he murmured, his voice breaking.
Mitchell patted his back patiently, "Yes, yes… he's staying home. It's great."
"I'll be able to go to all his games… all of them!" Cam exclaimed, hugging him even tighter.
Mitchell made a small grimace of pain, "Take it easy," he muttered.
Cam didn't seem to hear him, "At the Rose Bowl, Mitchell! We're going to watch him play at the Rose Bowl again! It's practically his home already."
Mitchell sighed again, "Cam, let's go to sleep. I have to go to work tomorrow."
"Right," Cam said, releasing him.
Both of them settled into bed, ready to sleep.
Across the hall was Andrew's room.
The room was completely dark, but he was still awake, eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
Tomorrow would be a busy day.
And the days after that probably even more so.
As soon as he woke up, he had already decided he would call Derek to officially communicate his decision and have him inform Jim Mora and Dan Guerrero.
After that, ESPN would most likely want to organize one of those television specials where top prospects publicly announce their college choice.
Honestly, Andrew had always thought those kinds of announcements were a bit of a circus.
But he also knew that many people had followed every official visit he made, every discussion about his future, every little hint.
So announcing his decision in a more formal way, live on television, made some sense.
It was better than simply releasing a statement and that being the end of it.
'Time to sleep…' Andrew thought as he closed his eyes.