Quotes & Sayings About Coaching Football

No matter how you total success in the coaching profession it all comes down to a single factor - talent. There may be a hundred great coaches of whom you have never heard in basketball, football, or any sport who will probably never receive the acclaim they deserve simply because they have not been blessed with the talent. Although not every coach can win consistently with talent, no coach can win without it. — John Wooden

I took all the courses you would need to be able to go to law school. But my experience in college with football made me want to go into coaching. — Marv Levy

It is more likely that coaches have players go down in games they are losing than games they are winning. — George M. Gilbert

Hell, I live like I did when I was 35. I don't believe in retirement groups because I don't believe in retirement. How long can I keep coaching? How about forever? I'll never walk off the field. — Sid Gillman

I truly believe that success is determined not on Friday nights during games but rather in practice away from the lights and glimmer where coaches and players only have each other, their sweat, their discipline and their loyalty to each other. It is at practice where the boys of America become men through hard work, dedication and perseverance. — George M. Gilbert

Nothing in life that is of value comes easy. If good things came easily then the value would be diminished. When we have a vested interest, when we give everything we have, then, and only then are those good times valuable. — George M. Gilbert

Sports programs are an important part of young people's lives but should never over-shadow the true purpose of high school and that is to earn a diploma. So often today sports have become more important than an education. This must be remedied because the true focus must always be toward the student's academic development. — George M. Gilbert

Whenever I think of baseball, the first name that comes to mind is Babe Ruth. What the Babe was to baseball, Shula is to football coaching. There are certain figures in sports who are larger than the games they play or coach, and Don Shula is one of those. — Marv Levy

In international football you have 10 games a season, with players from different clubs. There's no time for proper coaching; they're just recovering from playing on the Saturday. — Graham Taylor

In all the years that I've been in football - I went directly from coaching to broadcasting - I never really had a lot of experience watching it. — John Madden

Football has always been a big part of my life. Almost from the day I was born, playing and coaching football were all I really ever wanted to do. — Bobby Bowden

I love coaching football, and winning a Super Bowl was a goal I've had for a long time. But it has never been my purpose in life. My purpose in life is simply to glorify God. We have to be careful that we don't let the pursuit of our life's goals, no matter how important they seem, cause us to lose sight of our purpose. I coach football. But the good I can do to glorify God along the way is my real purpose. — Tony Dungy

My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961. The pay wasn't much, so to get $300 more per year, I agreed to coach the golf team. I didn't even know how to keep score, and really, my main job was not to wreck the van on the way to tournaments. — Lou Holtz

We live in a society that only embraces success and that is who we are. It takes a great deal of inner strength to deal with the time commitment of coaching when very little seems to be accomplished. — George M. Gilbert

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

I teach our young men that respect is earned each day on the practice field, in the classroom, and how each young man lives his life. — George M. Gilbert

It is important for coaches to mentor young people toward those things that are most important in life and aid them in creating their own order of priorities to live by. — George M. Gilbert

It is so easy to judge those around us and decide their value without knowing who they really are or what they truly represent. — George M. Gilbert

Being fired is part of the risk when anyone plans to take on the responsibility as a head coach. — George M. Gilbert

The development of the "We Believe" philosophy must be real and not cosmetic. Everyone must buy in and understand that it is not a motivational tool, but rather something very personal that should be lived and that all must believe in order for true success to be achieved. — George M. Gilbert

Coaching is like riding a roller coaster with many ups and downs. The true test is weathering the storm. The average length of time anywhere in America that a man is a head high school football coach is three years. — George M. Gilbert

Who is the muppet coaching Chelsea??? AVB??? Hmmm!! 25yrs for Ferguson, hopefully not even 6 months for this AVB geezer! — Kevin Pietersen

With good coaching, proper motivation and the right club structure with organic growth, you can achieve an awful lot in football. — Gary Neville

To achieve any group goal, individuals must work to improve themselves as a means to improve the group. — George M. Gilbert

I've done my coaching badges, I've got my Pro Licence, but I enjoy what I'm doing now. I'm also the elite performance director of the Welsh FA. The main thing for me was always Liverpool Football Club and my country, Wales - and I'm lucky enough to still be involved with both of them. — Ian Rush

This was the fourth time Lauren and I had seriously contemplated whether being a head coach in the National Football League was where the Lord wanted me to be. I was certain after I had been fired by the Bucs in 2001 that God was moving me and my family into a different role, but He had other plans. We evaluated our options again after the 2005 and 2006 seasons with the Colts, each time concluding that coaching the Colts was God's will for me. — Tony Dungy

Every time our great Country has been critically challenged either by dictators or terrorists, we as a Country have put aside our personal agendas and focused on doing what we need to do to win when threatened. — George M. Gilbert

When I got out of coaching, I had taught a class at the University of California, an extension class on football for fans. I was looking for tools. I was showing them films. I was going to write a textbook. Trip Hawkins came to me about making it a game for computers. — John Madden

Before success can truly become routine, there must be that transition from that wanting/hoping to have success toward honestly knowing you can earn success with your talents and work ethic. — George M. Gilbert

The coaches will offer a direction, a plan, routine, discipline and the players must develop the desire to work together accepting their roles as they learn in preparation for the season. — George M. Gilbert

Coaching is not how much you know. It's how much you can get players to do. — Bum Phillips

I think we had to hit rock-bottom in all facets of the program before we could ever start moving in a positive direction. — George M. Gilbert

The unknown can be a great tool. — George M. Gilbert

Coaching is not a natural way of life. Your victories and losses are too clear cut. — Tommy Prothro

Winners accept responsibility because acceptance of responsibility nullifies excuses. — George M. Gilbert

I've always believed that culture is defined and created from the top down, but it comes to life from the bottom up. This meant that I had to build our culture by working with the leadership group (i.e., the owner, general manager, and executives), the coaching staff, and the football team. To strengthen the culture among the leadership group, it was important to reiterate to the owner, team president, and general manager the shared beliefs, values, and expectations that we had discussed in depth when I was interviewing for the head coaching position. It was important to have collaborative conversations on a regular basis to discuss the changes we were making and why we were making them. — Jon Gordon

The third year at a school for any head coach is the most important year for the program they are attempting to develop. — George M. Gilbert

As of today, you do anything that I feel is disrespecting our program in any way, you are gone! From this day forward, everyone will be at practice in uniform as we will either build this program into something or we will destroy it! — George M. Gilbert

If you are not a part of the solution then you must be part of the problem. I am done with problems here! — George M. Gilbert

we first need to get boys out for football and then the plan will gradually come into play — George M. Gilbert

This is truly a rags to riches story which doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Hope is offered to those who face similar challenges that in this great Country dreams can be realized when work ethic and passion lead the way. — George M. Gilbert

I think as far as any kind of pressure on a football team or on an individual in professional sports really depends not only on that individual but the leadership they have on the team and the leadership they have on the coaching staff. A lot of times, they can divert some of those pressures off of the individual and off of the team. — Jimmy Johnson

The coaching profession has lost one of its true legends. Though he was best known for winning more football games than any other coach when he retired, Eddie Robinson's impact on coaching and the game of football went far beyond wins and losses. He brought a small school in northern Louisiana from obscurity to nationwide, if not worldwide, acclaim and touched the lives of hundreds and hundreds of young men in his 57 years at Grambling. That will be his greatest legacy. — Grant Teaff

I am convinced the Dallas Cowboys coaching staff has been winging it the past few years. No consistency. — Ace Antonio Hall

America is a country built on unity, hard work and diligent pursuit of personal goals leading to collective success. — George M. Gilbert

Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left. — Bobby Bowden

Attitude is the whole thing in football. Every team has the talent and the coaching. Motivation makes the difference. The teams that win stay healthy and interested. — Sid Gillman

I will not promise boys positions, I will not promise any of you football success, I will demand discipline, character, respect, and work ethic throughout the program. If I succeed in getting people to believe then success will follow. — George M. Gilbert

Once an athlete feels his coach does not believe in him resentment develops and everyone loses at that point. — George M. Gilbert

Coaches must take calculated risks all the time. One thing is to talk about what you plan to do and another is to prepare and then execute a plan toward change. — George M. Gilbert

Though the legs of a football coach are never so active on the field of play during playing time, his mind is the best or worse player on the pitch! — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Things that aren't important, that have nothing to do with winning and losing, don't have to be a rule. — Peter Richmond

The great cancer facing all of us during this 'new millennium' is entitlement. — George M. Gilbert

A team goal requires a team effort. — George M. Gilbert

Sometimes I miss coaching, but often things are not how they appear in football. — Ruud Gullit

I enjoyed coaching so much that I just have to stay with it. Don Coryell - I love him, and I think he was a great coach - but I hear he's going to build a house on some island. He's going to divorce himself from football, and that's a mystery to me. — Sid Gillman

I had no plan for that year but it wound up being one of the most important years of my football coaching career. It hit me along the way that I needed to really get at the heart of what's really true to myself. And then I was able to mold it and shape it in the years at SC to become the approach and the concept and the culture that we try to create here at Seattle. — Pete Carroll

The youth of America need routine, repetition toward excellence, a sound but not punishing discipline, and the opportunity to make mistakes without the feeling of failure. — George M. Gilbert

I hired top-notch people, trusted them to do their jobs, and then came to grips with the fact that I wouldn't be coaching as much. — Tony Dungy