A world of opportunity.(My Turn)

For the elite young gladiators of the gridiron, February will deriver the biggest day of their young lives: national signing day. Young studs across the country will pledge their allegiances to institutions of higher learning. These will be the biggest decisions they have ever made.

I cannot adequately describe the emotions of a young man who has sat in his riving room with a man named Stoops, Fulmer, Willingham, Bowden, Saban, Tressel or Coker.

Or a man named Barry Switzer. The King. I remember it like it was yesterday.

One hot summer afternoon before my junior year of high school, the phone rang in our little house. Coach Switzer was on the other end of the line. He asked if he could come to our house for dinner.

The door was always open at the Watts home, so Mama went right out to the garden and picked some purple hull peas, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. The main course was flied chicken with cornbread. I still can taste it today.

When I realized what Mama was making for the coach of the national champion Oklahoma Sooners, I was pretty much mortified. I thought this wealthy white guy deserved prime rib. But on the east side of the tracks in Eufaula, Okla., flied chicken with purple hull peas was prime rib.

However, after we sat down to dinner and Daddy offered the blessing, you would have thought we had served Coach a $35 filet. He couldn't get enough of those peas.