I love this time of the year – playoff football – and I have been privileged down through the years to be around some great State Championship football teams. I’ve also been around some great football teams that were not State Champions. What’s the difference? Obviously I’m not somebody who can figure that out.
I did though, years after he retired, spend a lot of time with Gordon Wood and I just threw it at him one day. I said, “Coach, what does it take to win a State Championship”? He quickly replied, “Three things. Number one, you’ve got to be good enough. Teams can’t fluke their way into a State Championship. The ones I’ve been around have all been very talented football teams, so you have to be good enough to win”.
“Secondly”, he said, “you have to be lucky enough”. I said, “Yeah, that means get some breaks, good bounces, and things like that”, and he said, “Really what I’m talking about when I say you’ve got to be lucky enough, is that you can’t have bad things happen to you during the playoffs”. He gave me two different examples. One team went 10-0 in the regular season and in their last practice before the playoffs started, their starting quarterback stepped off a curb and broke his ankle. The team probably could have won the State Championship but obviously they were done when bad luck hit them. Then he gave the other example as being a couple of your best defensive players in a car going to get something to eat and they have an accident. Both are injured and can’t play. That’s just bad luck happening to you. “So”, he said, “you have to be lucky enough to win”.
Finally, he said, “You’ve got to be hot enough”. I said, “Explain it to me”. He said, “You’ve got to peak at the right time. You can’t go into the playoffs and expect success and be playing poorly. You’ve got to be hot enough”. I believe that means you’ve got to be hot enough every day. You’ve got to be good at football every single day, practice and game day. And, if you stay at that level to where you’re really doing good every day and improving every day, you’ve got a chance.
Those were his three. You’ve got to be good enough. You’ve got to be lucky enough, and you’ve got to be hot enough. I will guarantee you about a month from now when you’re watching the State games, you will see that every one of those teams who win were good enough to win it. In other words, no flukes. And, In all probability, the ones who did win it all, were the ones who were not only good but lucky and hot, as well.
I think about the teams at Brownwood that I thought could have won, and every one of them fall into one of those categories, or at least one of the last two. Brownwood had several teams that I thought could have, and should have, won a State Championship, but something bad happened to them on the way. Some of it under their control. Some of it out of their control. There was a reason why each one of them stumbled. Most of you, if you’ve lived in Brownwood long enough, know the ones that I’m talking about. But, I am very blessed to have witnessed SEVEN State Championship teams which were all good enough. They were all lucky enough. They were all hot enough to hold up the final trophy.
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].