In spite of my leanings to not draw from a sports analogy, I can't resist this one. I'm a life-long Alabama fan, and watching them play Auburn this past weekend for a 36-0 win gave me plenty of fodder.

But there were three main strategies going on during the game that really grabbed by attention - their focus on the game at-hand, their look-ahead toward the SEC Championship game next weekend against Florida, and the plays they ran with their second string players (players that will not play a role until the 2009-10 season).

All of these were potentially competing strategies and could have risked too much distraction. But the greater risk would have been to not juggle all 3, which may not have cost them in the Auburn game (the short-term) but most certainly could have cost them next week against Florida.

So while considering a head coach's approach toward a successful football program I was led to this - as MMs, we've got to do more than just focus on the one thing in front of us. If we're not focused on what may be competing priorities for next month's, next quarter's, as well as next year's goals, we're not going to be consistently successful. And the greatest attribute of a successful manager is not just one who gets the big one-time results, but the manager who performs consistently.