Bear Bryant Quotes

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

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.

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

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.

Don't talk too much or too soon.

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.

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

Recognize winners. They come in all forms.

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.

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.

The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself.

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.

There's no substitute for guts.

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.

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.

There is no substitute for guts.

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.

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.

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.

Motivating people- the ingredient that separates winners from losers.

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

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.

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