Nine basic skill points sounded like a heavy weapon, but in reality, when Lu Ke opened his personal stats sheet, which was full of holes, he knew it was just a drop in the bucket. Still, the satisfaction of seeing his 16 weeks of hard training pay off was indescribable.
Lu Ke calmly and meticulously examined his individual stats for the first time, especially the quarterback skills. Aside from his basic personal information, which hadn't changed, the other stats were as follows:
Physical Strength: 62/100
Mental Fortitude: 81/100
Tactical Awareness: 67
Willpower: 80
Speed: 65
Strength: 47
Acceleration: 61
Agility: 70
Jumping: 48
...These are the basic stats.
Throwing Power: 78
Short Pass Accuracy: 67
Medium Pass Accuracy: 64
Long Pass Accuracy: 81
Throwing on the Run: 60
Play-Action: 45
Ball Security: 59
Field Vision: 50
Running with the Ball: 59
Evasion: 59
Blocking: 53
Juking: 53
Feinting: 53
...These are the quarterback skills.
Receiving Ability: 38
Route Running: 15
Catching in Traffic: 15
Contested Catch: 15
Explosiveness: 15
...These are the receiving skills, which also affect a quarterback's abilities.
Injury Resistance: 77
Stamina: 80
Recovery Speed: 75
...These are the injury-related stats related to physical fitness.
After carefully reviewing his stats, Lu Ke was pleasantly surprised to find that his Physical Strength: 62/100 had increased by one point. Lu Ke was 100% sure that he had never directly added basic skill points to this stat, but it had still gone up from "61" to "62." This meant that his five months of persistent training had paid off.
As Little Seven had said when he first got the system, all the stats influenced each other. While the effect was minimal, it wasn't nonexistent. The relationship between them was like quantity and quality. Only years of persistent effort could bring about a fundamental change.
The reason the training was called "daily basic training" was because of the focus on daily routines and foundational skills. The cumulative process resulted in noticeable adjustments to his body and technique.
Five months of not missing a single day of training only resulted in a one-point increase in his physical fitness. This wasn't as fast or direct as adding skill points, but he could feel the improvement in his body. This was even more tangible and real than the skill points, and it allowed Lu Ke to clearly see the results of his training.
This was undoubtedly a gratifying discovery.
Lu Ke's eyes then fell on his quarterback skills, where the numbers clearly showed his strengths and weaknesses—relatively speaking.
For a quarterback, footwork and mobility are very important. This can be understood as the ability to dodge tackles, protect yourself, and make a throw while being pursued by defenders. This is the main part of a football game. The offensive line can't block every single rush, and a quarterback can't always stand like a statue and make a stationary throw.
The skills related to this ability include throwing on the run, play-action, ball security, field vision, running with the ball, evasion, blocking, juking, feinting, and so on.
Play-action is a passing skill that deceives defenders, just like the fake run and real pass, or fake pass and real run, that Lu Ke used in the scrimmage. Ball security is a quarterback's ability to protect the ball and avoid fumbling when hit by a defender. Running with the ball is similar to a running back's skill, where a quarterback can run with the ball when necessary and look for an opportunity to pass at any time.
You could say that long pass accuracy, medium pass accuracy, and short pass accuracy are the skills for throwing from a stationary position. The other skills are what give a quarterback the opportunity to show off their accuracy. If you don't even have a chance to throw the ball, a perfect accuracy score is useless.
But the reality was that aside from throwing on the run, which had a passing score of 60, all his other stats were in the red. Even if Lu Ke wanted to add points, it was hard to know where to start.
Before becoming a substitute quarterback for the Bruins, Lu Ke hadn't realized the importance of footwork and mobility. Looking at his individual basic stats, Lu Ke's speed, agility, and stamina were all pretty good. When he played in high school, he could get to an open space and complete a pass just by using those stats and his smarts to read the game.
But after becoming a substitute, Lu Ke realized that his physical strength and efficiency in running with the ball were too low. On the increasingly intense and complex college field, his weaknesses became more and more apparent. Looking back, it was no wonder his performance during the freshman tryouts was so terrible.
Lu Ke had never realized this before, so after getting the system, he focused on adding points to his long and short pass accuracy. Now, it wasn't a wrong decision, but he certainly could have used his points more effectively. Luckily, after joining the substitute team, his training became more structured, and Lu Ke was a smart person—his greatest asset. This made his approach to adding points much clearer.
Lu Ke didn't hesitate to use his nine basic skill points. He added three points to short pass accuracy and the remaining six to throwing on the run. This brought his short pass accuracy to 70 and his throwing on the run to 66.
Lu Ke knew he had too many weaknesses, like a sieve with holes everywhere that needed to be plugged. But if he had to choose what was most urgent, it was undoubtedly his passing ability. More specifically, it was turning his passing accuracy into successful completions and touchdowns.
Now, Lu Ke's long pass accuracy, medium pass accuracy, and short pass accuracy were 81, 64, and 70, respectively. This meant Lu Ke's stationary passing ability was at the level of an average college quarterback and possibly even better than Kevin Prince's or Darius Bell's.
The reason for "possibly" was that the system couldn't measure the other two quarterbacks' stats, so this was just a conclusion based on regular training.
With his throwing on the run ability up to 66, this would become Lu Ke's best guarantee for using his passing accuracy.
In just five short months, with the help of the system, Lu Ke went from being an amateur who wasn't even qualified to be a practice player to a college quarterback with average skills. This kind of meteoric improvement made Lu Ke crave more training and more games. Training was the solid foundation, but the games were the only true test.
In his blood, Lu Ke always yearned to be on the field. It was a battlefield that forced a person to grow quickly! Only the true strong would survive!
While he was calculating how much he could improve his skills in the little over three months before the rookie training camp in March, he was also thinking about how far he was from the professional leagues and what more he needed to do. While training and studying, the 2010 NCAA season was quickly coming to an end.
In the second week of December, on Saturday, December 11, the UCLA Bruins faced their final opponent of the season: their city rival, the USC Trojans.
The Bruins and the Trojans were undoubtedly the most famous city rivals in NCAA football history. They were bitter enemies, and every game was an intense, life-or-death battle. Even the games against Stanford couldn't compare to the animosity between these two.
Over the past decade, the Trojans had a dominant dynasty, with over ten wins for five consecutive years. They were the absolute powerhouse of the league. Since the millennium, in the ten games between the Trojans and the Bruins, the Trojans had won nine, with the Bruins only getting a single victory in 2006.
It was no exaggeration to say that for the past decade, USC had been dominating UCLA. The Bruins' students couldn't even hold their heads up when they met their rivals in private. It was the longest and darkest period for the Bruins since the rivalry began.
This year's situation was even more unique. First, in the season opener, UCLA lost to Stanford with a crushing score of 35-0. No one wanted to lose to USC again, which would be like a final insult.
Second, the Bruins, under Kevin Prince's leadership, had a shaky season. While the quarterback's performance was subpar, the defense had shown some promise. And with three capable running backs, they had a record of six wins and five losses in their first eleven games, which was the same as USC's!
This year, USC was in a transitional period, and their season had been inconsistent, with five losses so far. This was the perfect opportunity for UCLA to get revenge!
These two rivals were temporarily ranked fourth and fifth in the league, with USC at fourth due to a better point differential. But the outcome of this game could change that. If UCLA could defeat their rivals, they could take their place, move into the top four, and get a chance to be nominated for a spot in the Rose Bowl this year!
The six major NCAA bowl games are not for the national championship. They are just for the conference championships. Unlike basketball, football has no playoffs. Instead, two teams from the top four are invited to play in the bowl, based on their record, performance, and the strength of their opponents. For the Pac-12, the highest honor is the Rose Bowl!
In other words, this year's game against their city rival was not just a rivalry game; it was a battle for a spot in the bowl game!
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