On a hand full of occasions, I have had someone come up and insult me by saying, “You are so lucky to have good kids.” After I promptly tell them that we work damn hard on our kids and for them to say we got divine intervention and were delivered “better” kids than others is ludicrous. I usually am reminded that most people go through life, fat, dumb and happy thinking that most things in life just kind of happen.

It wasn’t luck that enabled Mack Brown and Vince Young to bring Texas a title.

Some people said that Texas was lucky to win the 2006 Rose Bowl because LenDale White ran to the wrong whole and right into the teeth of the Texas defense on a fourth-and-1 that could have put the game away for the Trojans.

Some folks say that Nebraska was lucky to win a share of the national championship in 1997. Lying on his back, wide receiver Shevin Wiggins kicked a ball in the air and freshman Matt Davidson picked it off the ground to get within an extra point of tying Missouri and eventually winning the game to keep the Huskers’ record alive in Tom Osborne’s last year.

People said that Mack Brown only won a national championship at Texas because he was lucky enough to recruit Vince Young.

What exactly is luck and how does it affect sports teams?

There is no doubt that luck plays a part in sports. I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

I have always thought that sports was about being there, being in the moment and being prepared to be there so you can take advantage of any opportunity that might come along.

Bobby Bowden had to hear the talk but being there enough and having a few things go his way won him not one but two national championships. Tom Osborne could never win the big one and then finally won three.

Brown was the man chasing a championship, having never won even a conference championship. He won a conference championship and the national championship in the same season.

Rick Barnes has gotten his Texas basketball program closer and closer to being there and Ben Howland got his UCLA basketball program to three straight Final Fours. For all of the scuttle about them not winning it all, it’s being there that counts and those two men and their basketball programs will get to the mountain top at some point.

Luck is about being there. Luck is about showing up. I tease my kids all the time that it might be true that it is better to be lucky than be good; but I also tell them that you can’t get lucky if you are not prepared to accept it.

Every champion, in sports or industry, can look back over the course of competition and see places where they were fortunate, opportunistic and sometimes just downright lucky.

Everybody, and I mean everybody, gets lucky. What we all want in life is a shot. What we do with that shot, that’s the story we want to tell.

What do you do with the luck that falls your way?

LenDale White might have run to the wrong hole. The kick by Shevin Wiggins saved the season and chance for Nebraska to win the National Championship in 1997. Mack Brown was lucky to land Vince Young.

But here’s what really happened …

USC got arrogant in its play calling, left its Heisman Trophy winner and one of the country’s best athletes on the sideline and gave Vince Young and the Texas offense the ball.

Nebraska won every game, period, and then went on to beat Peyton Manning and Tennessee like they stole something. They deserved the national championship and in today’s BCS, they would have beaten Michigan and not tied for the championship.

Brown was not lucky to recruit Vince Young any more than Bobby Bowden was lucky to recruit Charlie Ward or Tom Osborne was lucky to recruit Tommy Frasier. Recruiting, regardless of how much people try to marginalize it, is part of the game and the coach with the best talent on his sidelines still wins 80 percent of the games.

Sometimes life and luck is what you make of it. It’s never all you, but make no mistake, it’s never all luck.

Luck and hard work go hand in hand. The harder I work, the luckier I get.