Bear Bryant Quotes & Sayings

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

Football changes and so do people. — Bear Bryant

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

I hope to get out before they start football next year. — Bear Bryant

Don't tolerate lazy people. They are losers. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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! — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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

Scout yourself. Have a buddy who coaches scout you. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

Recognize winners. They come in all forms. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

Don't talk too much or too soon. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

I ain't never been nothin but a winner. — Bear Bryant

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

You have to be willing to out-condition your opponents. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

Get the winners into the game. — Bear Bryant

There is a big difference in wanting to and willing to. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

I've never recommended anybody go into coaching, 'cause if they have enough on the ball, if they can do without coaching, they should do without it. If they put as much work into it and
spend as much time, the rewards are going to be much better in something else. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

I ain't won but one. My team won the rest in spite of me. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has it. — Bear Bryant

The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. If you do, the rest falls into place. You have to have good assistants, and a lot of things, but first you have to have the chairman of the board. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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. — Bear Bryant

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

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. — Bear Bryant

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