136 Quotes by Bear Bryant

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Expect the unexpected.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

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.

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.

Don't talk too much or too soon.

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.

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.

Recognize winners. They come in all forms.

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

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.

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

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

There's no substitute for guts.

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.

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.

You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.

There is no substitute for guts.

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.

Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Don't tolerate lazy people. They are losers.

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.

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

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

Lee Roy was the best college linebacker - bar none. He would have made every tackle on every play if they had stayed in bounds.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

I ain't never been nothin but a winner.

Being inside Tiger Stadium is like being on the inside of a drum.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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'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.

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.

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

That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

The idea of molding men means a lot to me.

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

I didn't care if we ever quit practicing. I loved it. The only other guy I ever knew who loved it as much was Jerry Duncan. He would beg to practice even when he was hurt. I've actually seen him cry because the trainer told him he couldn't scrimmage.

You have to learn what makes this or that Sammy run. For one it's a pat on the back, for another it's eating him out, for still another it's a fatherly talk, or something else. You're a fool if you think as I did as a young coach, that you can treat them all alike.

I think I'm telling the truth. I sat by Ray Perkins at the Hall of Fame dinner in New York, and at that time he didn't know he was our coach and I didn't either.

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

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.

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

Football changes and so do people.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Get the winners into the game.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 don't have any ideas; my coaches have them. I just pass the ideas on and referee the arguments.

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.

If I miss coaching that much, I could go to some little school where they didn't recruit, where all the kids wanted to go. I believe I could find somewhere to coach.

Don't overwork your squad. If you're going to make a mistake, under-work them.

I'm happy with the coach we have. I think any one of the ones I asked them to consider would've been good.

Every time a player goes out there, at least 20 people have some amount of influence on him. His mother has more influence than anyone. I know because I played, and I loved my mama.

The summer day is closed, the sun is set: Well they have done their office, those bright hours, The latest of whose train goes softly out In the red west.

Georgia Tech beat us and Mississippi Southern tied us last year, and Texas beat us after we had the game won. We only played about five games the way we were capable of playing and lost one of those.

It's been years since I've had a real input in the game anyway. For this game, I've just tried to keep all the other stuff away from the players and coaches.

Everybody's got pretty good players now, more players than there've ever been. If you play poorly, you're going to get beat.

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

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

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

Scout yourself. Have a buddy who coaches scout you.

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

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

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

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

If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it.

Back 12 years ago, when Dr. Mathews was president here, we had a plan that when I got ready to quit, we'd bring a certain guy in and he'd take over that day and I'd leave. But as time wore on, I realized that wouldn't have been good at all.

Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has 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.