Bear Bryant Football Quotations

Don't give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half.

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.

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

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

If you want to coach you have three rules to follow to win. One, surround yourself with people who can't live without football. I've had a lot of them. Two, be able to recognize winners. They come in all forms. And, three, have a plan for everything. A plan for practice, a plan for the game. A plan for being ahead, and a plan for being behind 20-0 at half, with your quarterback hurt and the phones dead, with it raining cats and dogs and no rain gear because the equipment man left it at home.

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

Football changes and so do people.

Hell, no! A tie is like kissing your sister!

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

Here's a twenty, bury two.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Bear Bryant's 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.

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games.