Fall in love with the process: A well-read Southern team reports to camp seeking the 'chance to become great'

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- The Southern football team’s offseason reading assignment was due Friday, when it reported for the start of preseason camp.

The task? Finish the book “Chop Wood, Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great” by Joshua Medcalf.

“The deal with this generation is they want things right now, and they don’t understand that it’s a process in becoming great,” coach Dawson Odums said. “The only way to become great is to fall in love with the process.”

Odums assigned the book to his entire program in the spring, from the coaching staff to the players at the bottom of the depth chart.

The summary, according to Odums: A man dreams of becoming a samurai archer, enrolls in a training school and looks for the quickest way to achieve that goal. He is told not to focus on the end result but instead to focus on accomplishing what seem to be the most minute tasks, like chopping wood to burn for heat and carrying water to the village.

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