Football Coaches' Quotes

"Show me a good and gracious loser ... and I'll show you a failure." Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"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 / Alabama

"It isn't necessary to see a good tackle ... You can hear it." Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"At Georgia Southern, we don't cheat ... That costs money and we don't have any." Erk Russell / Georgia Southern.

"Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas." Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.

"After you retire, there's only one big event left ... and I ain't ready for that." Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it." Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"When you win, nothing hurts." Joe Namath / Alabama

"Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated." Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold ... you gotta know the password, "Roll, tide, roll!" Bear Bryant / Alabama

"A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall." Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." Woody Hayes / Ohio State

"I don't expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation." Bob Devaney / Nebraska

"In Alabama, an atheist is ... someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant." Wally Butts / Georgia

"You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life." Paul Dietzel / LSU

"It's kind of hard to rally around a math class." Bear Bryant / Alabama

When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world. "No, but you can see it from here." Lou Holtz / Arkansas

"There's one sure way to stop us from scoring ... give us the ball near the goal line." Matty Bell / SMU

"Lads, you're not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died." Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

"I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's." Alex Karras / Iowa

"My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor." Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee

"I could have been a Rhodes Scholar ... except for my grades." Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

"Always remember ... Goliath was a 40-point favorite over David." Shug Jordan / Auburn

"They cut us up like boarding house pie ... And that's real small pieces." Darrell Royal / Texas

"They whipped us like a tied up goat." Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn't recruit me and he said: 'Well, Walt, we took a look at you and you weren't any good.'" Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State

"Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel." Bobby Bowden / Florida State

"Football is NOT a contact sport - it is a collision sport. Dancing IS a contact sport." Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his post-game message to his team: "All those who need showers ... take them." John McKay / USC

"If lessons are learned in defeat ... our team is getting a great education." Murray Warmath / Minnesota

"The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb." Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

"Oh, we played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon." Spike Dykes / Texas Tech

"We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches." Darrell Royal / Texas

"We didn't tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking." John McKay / USC

"Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad." Darrell Royal / University of Texas

"I've found that prayers work best ... when you have big players." Knute Rockne / Notre Dame