The Bodda Getta

Ever since I was a child, I have loved playing chess. My father taught me how to play at a very young age, and after I beat him a few times, he stopped playing me. I didn't pick it up again until high school and college, where I started to play fairly competitvely. I began playing in tournaments where time allowed, and through the years I have not found a game of its equal. It is one of the few games where luck plays no part. There are no cards to draw, dice to roll or weather to navigate. It is your brain versus theirs, and I find that enthralling.

Chess taught me many lessons. It taught me to think strategically as well as tactically. It taught me to respect an opponent for what they had on the inside, not on the outside. And it taught me a very important lesson regarding what it takes to win. Unlike what you see dramatized in film, most chess games aren't lost because of some unseen checkmate thundering across the board. Chess games are lost over time, little by little, as inferior moves are bested by better ones. At some point, thirty turns into a game, the loser feels constricted and trapped, but he couldn't tell you how he got there. He was beaten because he found good moves instead of the best ones. Little by little, we improve or destroy our position.

Football is the same way. To beat the best, you need to be better than your opponent. That means making the best decision possible at each opportunity. The coach hired needs to be the best. The player recruited needs to be the best. The playcalling needs to be the best. The workouts need to be the most intense. The fans need to be the most passionate. All of those ingredients are put into the product that we see on the field, and we can't afford to make inferior choices on any of them. Again, you don't win my making good decisions. You have to make the BEST ones.

It's recruiting season. Doesn't my above post apply? Sure it does... with one caveat. We need the best players we can get from around the country, that is true. Unfortunately for all involved, the best players can't be known simply by looking at a star rating. It is impossible to know who will end up being the diamond in the rough, or someone who is just rough. To the simple mind, Auburn finishing 10th in the recruiting standings might be a failure. And it might be. But we can't know that until the players we sign attend college, deal with distractions, learn the playbook, and take the field. Yes, we all want the best possible pieces on our team, but since we can't know exactly who those people are, we shouldn't get too excited - or too disappointed - on signing day.