Bear bryant quotes

Expect the unexpected.

Here's a twenty, bury two.

The biggest mistake coaches make is taking borderline cases and trying to save them. I'm not talking about grades now, I'm talking about character. I want to know before a boy enrolls about his home life, and what his parents want him to be.

At Alabama, our players don't win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.

I left Texas A&M because my school called me. Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running.

When you play defense you have to storm the fort or play cover - you can't do both.

I'm no genius, but I'm a damn good football coach.

Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.

They say I teach brutal football, but the only thing brutal about football is losing.

There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.

You try to make your team do something they're not capable of and you get murdered.

Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin' and preachin' were a lot alike.

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.

There's no substitute for guts.

If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, Tide, Roll!"

I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.

A good, quick, small team can beat a big, slow team any time.

There's no use fussing on a boy who doesn't have any ability.

Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.

Winning isn't imperative, but getting tougher in the fourth quarter is.

It's nice to have the opportunity to play for so much money, but it's nicer to win it.

You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.

Never be too proud to get down on your knees and pray.

Get the winners into the game.

Scout yourself. Have a buddy who coaches scout you.

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.

I'm no innovator. If anything I'm a stealer, or borrower. I've stolen or borrowed from more people than you can shake a stick at.

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.

The first time you quit, it's hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don't even have to think about it.

The price of victory is high, but so are the rewards.

I'm known as a recruiter. Well you've got to have chicken to make chicken salad.

Three rules for coaching: 1.) Surround yourself with people who can't live without football. 2.) Recognize winners. They come in all forms. 3.) Have a plan for everything.

I've had many a player tell me all through high school and right up until signing day that they were coming to Alabama, then they signed with somebody else.

Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

Recognize winners. They come in all forms.

Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers.

I plan on staying at Alabama for the rest of my career. I guarantee that I'll be here for you through it all, regardless of what happens.

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.

Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half.

You have to be willing to out-condition your opponents.

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.

Don't talk too much or too soon.

If you don't have discipline, you can't have a successful program.

Don't talk too much. Don't pop off. Don't talk after the game until you cool off.

But it's still a coach's game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don't have a good one at the top, you don't have a cut dog's chance.

I ain't never had much fun. I ain't never been two inches away from a football. Here guys go fishing on the day of the game, hunting, golfing, and all I want to do is be alone, studying how not to lose.

I'll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we'll be champions.

I always want my players to show class, knock'em down, pat on the back, and run back to the huddle.

In my lifetime, I may have put too much emphasis on winning, because here I am an old man and the only fun I've had is winning, and that's ridiculous.

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.

But there's one thing about quitters you have to guard against - they are contagious. If one boy goes, the chances are he'll take somebody with him, and you don't want that. So when they would start acting that way, I used to pack them up and get them out, or embarrass them, or do something to turn them around.

The faint old man shall lean his silver head To feel thee; thou shalt kiss the child asleep, And dry the moistened curls that overspread His temples, while his breathing grows more deep.

I don't hire anybody not brighter than I am. If they're not brighter than I am, I don't need them.

Hell, no! A tie is like kissing your sister!

Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.

No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it's what his players know that counts.

Sure, I'd love to beat Notre Dame, don't get me wrong. But nothing matters more than beating that cow college on the other side of the state!

In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first ahead of personal glory.

It really doesn't cost anything to be nice, and the rewards can be unimaginable

Don't worry about making friends; don't worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can't hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can't stand you.

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.

The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself.

There is no sin in not liking to play; it's a mistake for a boy to be there if he doesn't want to.

Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.

I'd like for people to remember me as a winner, because I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

I want to make sure I don't interfere with the success of that team next year. I don't see any way I could go to practice like most of 'em do, and not hurt the team. I'd go nuts if I tried doing that.

A champion pays an extra price to be better than anyone else.

Don't tolerate lazy people. They are losers.

If they don't have a winning attitude, I don't want them.

If you are going to be a successful duck hunter, you must go where the ducks are.

I honestly believe that if you are willing to out-condition the opponent, have confidence in your ability, be more aggressive than your opponent and have a genuine desire for team victory, you will become the national champions. If you have all the above, you will acquire confidence and poise, and you will have those intangibles that win the close ones.

When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it. 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don't repeat it.

Football changes and so do people.

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.

If you want to coach you have three rules to follow to win. One, surround yourself with people who can't live without football. I've had a lot of them. Two, be able to recognize winners. They come in all forms. And, three, have a plan for everything. A plan for practice, a plan for the game. A plan for being ahead, and a plan for being behind 20-0 at half, with your quarterback hurt and the phones dead, with it raining cats and dogs and no rain gear because the equipment man left it at home.

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.

The fun never goes out, but it changes with the years, with winning and losing.

I don't care how much talent a team has - if the boys don't think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how they play tough on Saturday.

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.

If it is worth playing, it is worth paying the price to win.

My approach to the game has been the same at all the places I've been. Vanilla. The sure way. That means, first of all, to win physically. If you got eleven on a field, and they beat the other eleven physically, they'll win. They will start forcing mistakes. They'll win in the fourth quarter.

I'm not much of a golfer, I don't have any friends and all I like to do is go home and be alone, and not worry about ways not to lose.

I've made so many mistakes that if I don't make the same mistakes over, we're going to come pretty close to winning.

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.

Most coaches study the films when they lose. I study them when we win -to see if I can figure out what I did right

There ought to be a special place in heaven for coaches' wives.

Be aware of "yes" men. Generally, they are losers. Surround yourself with winners. Never forget - people win.

If you believe in yourself and have dedication and pride - and never quit, you'll be a winner. The price of victory is high but so are the rewards.

Find your own picture, your own self in anything that goes bad. It's awfully easy to mouth off at your staff or chew out players, but if it's bad, and your the head coach, you're responsible. If we have an intercepted pass, I threw it. I'm the head coach. If we get a punt blocked, I caused it. A bad practice, a bad game, it's up to the head coach to assume his responsibility.

Nearly every coach I've talked with tells me that the attention you get from media and other people is the thing you miss most. I don't know if that's right.

I didn't have a thing to do with picking a coach, and didn't want to. But I didn't think they'd pick one I didn't like.

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.

You're still going to win with preparation and dedication and plain old desire. If you don't have genuine desire, you won't be dedicated enough to prepare properly.

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.

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.

It's not the will to win that matters-everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters.

When you win, there's glory enough for everybody. When you lose, there's glory for none.

When I was a young coach I used to say, "Treat everybody alike." That's bull. Treat everybody fairly.

One man doesn't make a team. It takes eleven.

I'm no miracle man. I guarantee nothing but hard work.

I can remember loving to recruit. I knew I was going to do my best. But traveling and recruiting doesn't appeal to me any more. It's not as much fun as it used to be.

It's kind of hard to rally around a math class.

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.

First there are those who are winners, and know they are winners. Then there are the losers who know they are losers. Then there are those who are not winners, but don't know it. They're the ones for me. They never quit trying. They're the soul of our game.

I can reach a kid who doesn't have any ability as long as he doesn't know it.

Football games are generally won by the boys with the greatest desire.

All I know is, I don't want to stop coaching, and I don't want to stop winning, so we're gonna break the record unless I die.

In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to it.

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.

Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you'll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don't have a plan. That's why it's easy to beat most folks.

Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit.

I have had players who are good, and who know they are good; I have had players who are bad and know they are bad; I have had players who are good, but who don't know they are good; I have had players who are bad, but who don't know they are bad. It is this last group that has won more games for me than the first three groups combined.

In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going to find you anyway.

Recruiting is the one thing I hate. I won't do it unless my coaches tell me I've just got to. The whole process is kind of undignified for me and the young man.

You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him to a heavy load.

If you don't learn anything but self discipline, then athletics is worthwhile.

We can't have two standards, one set for the dedicated young men who want to do something ambitious and one set for those who don't.

If we'd beaten 'em, I wouldn't be going out.

There is a big difference in wanting to and willing to.

The idea of molding men means a lot to me.

I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It's like being inside a drum.

A few minutes ago, I had a hard time getting through the lobby because of all the people. After today, that won't be happening.

There is no substitute for guts.

Don't give up. Reach down inside of you and you'll find something left.