Bobby Bowden Quotes

Don't go to the grave with life unused.

That boy don't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades, and that boy don't know the meaning of a lot of words.

Discipline to me is sacrifice; it's willingness to give up something you want to do, so you can better yourself.

People that are brilliant and successful, we think they've just always been that way. That's not the case. Most of them have had some tough adversity in their life. It's prepared them. I've never felt like you could develop character without adversity.

I learned a long time ago that you don't have to go around using bad language and trying to hurt people to show how macho you are. That stuff won't get you anywhere, it just shows lack of vocabulary and character.

The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.

Integrity makes my job easier. It's deception and dishonesty that requires so much diligent effort.

If short hair and good manners won football games, Army and Navy would play for the national championship every year.

When I go after something, I go after it hard. It has always been that way. I don't know. It's in my blood.

As good as we were, we didn’t win a National Championship until 1993, mainly because we kept losing to Miami on missed kicks. I used to get mad because nobody else would play Miami. Notre Dame would play them, then drop them. Florida dropped them. Penn State dropped them. We would play Miami and lose by one point on a missed field goal, and it would knock us out of the National Championship. I didn’t want to play them, either, but I had to play them. That’s why I said, 'When I die, They’ll say, ‘At least he played Miami.'

To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach.

Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.

He died right after he retired, and seeing that made me feel more conscious of a man needing a motive to live. If I ever got out of coaching, I would have to get a job somewhere, or I'm afraid I'd wilt on the vine, too.

I'm not too proud to change. I like to win too much.

If somebody mistreats you, treat’em good. That kills’em.

I learned more from the mistakes than from the good things.

Courage is doing something you need to do that might get you hurt.

He who gets the best players usually wins.

I am not happy with moral victories. Those things are forgotten.

If their IQ's where five points lower they'd be geraniums.

I suppose I'm like most coaches now, standing on the sideline hoping somebody asks them a question.

I was always going to church with my mom, dad and sister. I was literally raised under the godly influence both at home and church. There was no alcohol and no smoking at our house. That was the way a Bowden was supposed to live. My dad always told me to represent the Bowden name in a respectful manner.

After you retire, there's only one big event left....and I ain't ready for that.

I’m praying for a misdemeanor

There's only about 6 inches that turns that halo into a noose.

Something has to happen that you can't coach.

Sportsmanship to me is going out and playing as hard as you can within the rules.

I've always said it takes more courage to stand back there and throw a ball knowing you're fixing to get drilled than anything I can think of in football.

Somehow, I went from being too young, to being too old. Somewhere in there I must have been just right.

A better ending could not have been scripted. Of course, if we had won, that would have been better.

I guess I'll retire someday if I live that long.