I'll let y'all in on one of my dirty little secrets: I am neither as well-read nor as well-educated as I pretend to be. Okay, so maybe that is less of a dirty little secret and more of the status quo for, I don't know, everyone, but it's still the truth. So when T Kyle issued his last challenge, I had to take to Wikipedia the annals of knowledge and learning to familiarize myself with most a few of these topics. There have already been several good entries for this challenge so I doubt I'll win this thing, which means I may as well let the subs play for this piece. Playing subs rather than starters is a strategy some embrace and some do not, which is a perfect segue into explaining my challenge format. Each item on T Kyle's list offers valuable insight into the world of college football if one knows where to look, so here are 5 insights about college football to be gleaned from T Kyle's challenge list.
1) Give a talented coach time to work through his problems because not doing so may cost you a national title.
I'm not such a cretin that I don't know who George Washington is, but I took to Wikipedia anyway in an attempt to narrow the focus. In my ramblings, I came across this tidbit: "Washington's loss of Philadelphia prompted some members of Congress to discuss removing Washington from command. This attempt failed after Washington's supporters rallied behind him." That's right. George Washington was once on the hot seat (which, I suppose, puts Richt's hot seat talk in perspective). Perhaps the good guys would've won the national title anyway without Washington, but then we might still be hearing grumbles that the colonies had only won with Washington's players.
via i.imgur.com
Pictured: What really happened when Washington crossed the Delaware.
2) Some things never change.
In the Battle of Toulon in the War of the Austrian Succession, the HMS Oxford was a fourth-rate ship fighting on the losing side that was captained by a man who escaped punishment for various crimes due to connections and blaming others. That is all.
Spend just one weekend on his ship and you'll never want to leave or even contemplate sailing on another ship.
3) The flashiest recruits are not always the best; hard workers with heart are better than impotent divas.
I've never been a big fan of sit coms, and what I know about Sex and the City could fit inside a thimble. However, I am still an English major at heart and can still conduct a literary analysis based on a Wikipedia article. Charlotte York MacDougal Goldenblatt's first husband is a blue-chipper. He is handsome, successful, and fan-approved. However, he also has issues that prevent him from performing-on and off the field. Her next husband, however, is more of an underrated three-star who at first seems ill-suited for his position but who is sincerely committed to the G. Once they figure out his proper position, they go on to have a successful relationship that makes all of the talent evaluators out there look ridiculous.
via i.imgur.com
Those recruiting sites will steer you wrong if you're not a good evaluator of talent.
4) Cheaters gonna cheat, so do as much as you legally can in an attempt to level the playing field.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot did not care if his students created copies of his paintings; in fact, he actually encouraged and even assisted them in their copying endeavors. This laxity essentially led to the Corot market being flooded with forgeries in spite of cataloguists' best efforts to separate the real from the fake. Cataloguists even released publications that were supposed to help people tell fake Corots from real ones, but the forgers got a hold of the publications and used them to refine their own works. Some people are experts at finding loopholes and fudging rules, so the rest of us have to do what we can to keep up with the Corots.
via i.imgur.com
Pictured: A possible Corot forgery.
5) Outdated, disorganized laws need to be amended and streamlined to fit the times.
In 1833, Joseph Henry Lumpkin was on a committee that helped replace Georgia's jumbled, disorganized, and, in some instances, irrelevant laws with a new penal code that streamlined the legal process. This penal code was easier to understand than the mish-mash of laws that had gone before, aiding in the overall better understanding of state law. Anyone who follows recruiting or college football knows that the NCAA's rulebook is bloated and chock full of ridiculous, petty, outdated, unfair, irrelevant, and...I guess I got a bit carried away there. Sometimes, the best course of action is to completely redo something in order to fix a broken system. Too bad we can't sic Lumpkin on the NCAA's rulebook (or, at the bare minimum, make him the legal enforcer/license checker of the football team).
via us.123rf.com
Pictured: The current NCAA college football rulebook.
