Football and bassin’

I got to spend a day on the water with Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley. It was in Bassmaster Magazine and on Bassmaster.com as well. If you'll remember, I drove the boat as Shipley stood on the deck and Colt threw a 40-mph slant to Justin.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate the University of Alabama. They beat a heck of a good football team and broke my heart in the process. Well done, boys. A while back, I got to spend a day on the water with Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley. It was in Bassmaster Magazine and on Bassmaster.com as well. If you'll remember, I drove the boat as Shipley stood on the deck and Colt threw a 40-mph slant to Justin. It was awesome. That day on the water made me feel like I have a little bit of ownership on some level. I'm more invested in the team by having spent time with those boys. That was one of the more memorable days of my 2009. 

As I've watched the BCS games and followed along with the teams' preparation, I can't help but see parallels between bass fishing and other sports in terms of preparation. It's the hard work involved in the preparation that rings familiar when getting ready for any sort of championship. The BCS bowl was a national championship, and the Classic is a world championship. The BCS teams play all season, but only get a month or so of real preparation for the championship. That's about the same amount of time we'll get to prepare for the Classic.

With every passing day it creeps a little farther to the forefront of my mind. A while ago it was on the backburner, and more recently it's been sort of in the middle but in a week or two we'll be a month out and it will be almost all I think of. In that month I plan on doing a lot of planning, tackle preparation and going over my practice. Practice is always more important than game day, no matter the sport. If you prepare well, game day comes down to execution. If you don't prepare well, the best execution won't help you at all.

Watching the process that lead up to the BCS title game has gotten me fired up about and in the right mindset for the Classic, my championship event. On a different note, I got my new boat the other day, the 2010 Skeeter FX20 with a 250-horse Yamaha VMax SHO. However, wouldn't you know it, it's too cold here in Texas to take it out. It'll be sporting the XCalibur/Skeeter wrap again for 2010. Check back in a week or so and I'll let you all know how my very own hot rod bass rig runs. Even though the Classic is in Alabama, I can't wait.