It's awfully important to win with humility. It's also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won't know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.
Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.
I know what it takes to win. If I can sell them on what it takes to win, then we are not going to lose too many football games.
There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.
What are you doing here? Tell me why you are here. If you are not here to win a national championship, you're in the wrong place. You boys are special. I don't want my players to be like other students. I want special people. You can learn a lot on the football field that isn't taught in the home, the church, or the classroom. There are going to be days when you think you've got no more to give and then you're going to give plenty more. You are going to have pride and class. You are going to be very special. You are going to win the national championship for Alabama.
If wanting to win is a fault, as some of my critics seem to insist, then I plead guilty. I like to win. I know no other way. It's in my blood.
I have always tried to teach my players to be fighters. When I say that, I don't mean put up your dukes and get in a fistfight over something. I'm talking about facing adversity in your life. There is not a person alive who isn't going to have some awfully bad days in their lives. I tell my players that what I mean by fighting is when your house burns down, and your wife runs off with the drummer, and you've lost your job and all the odds are against you. What are you going to do? Most people just lay down and quit. Well, I want my people to fight back.
Set goals - high goals for you and your organization. When your organization has a goal to shoot for, you create teamwork, people working for a common good.
The old lessons (work, self-discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, fighting to achieve) aren't being taught by many people other than football coaches these days. The football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more wide open than between kids and parents. We better teach these lessons or else the country's future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts, or people on relief.
You must learn how to hold a team together. You must lift some men up, calm others down, until finally they've got one heartbeat. Then you've got yourself a team.
I told them my system was based on the "ant plan," that I'd gotten the idea watching a colony of ants in Africa during the war. A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.
Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin' and preachin' were a lot alike.
A good, quick, small team can beat a big, slow team any time.
If there is one thing that has helped me as a coach, it's my ability to recognize winners, or good people who can become winners by paying the price.
Be aware of "yes" men. Generally, they are losers. Surround yourself with winners. Never forget - people win.
People who are in it for their own good are individualists. They don't share the same heartbeat that makes a team so great. A great unit, whether it be football or any organization, shares the same heartbeat.
If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.
You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.
Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.
Don't overwork your squad. If you're going to make a mistake, under-work them.
I think the most important thing of all for any team is a winning attitude. The coaches must have it. The players must have it. The student body must have it. If you have dedicated players who believe in themselves, you don't need a lot of talent.
Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.
I tell young players who want to be coaches, who think they can put up with all the headaches and heartaches, can you live without it? If you can live without it, don't get in it.
If a man is a quitter, I'd rather find out in practice than in a game. I ask for all a player has so I'll know later what I can expect.
I'll never give up on a player regardless of his ability as long as he never gives up on himself. In time he will develop.
Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Every day we present the best quotes! Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends
or simply: