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.
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.
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!
When I was a young coach I used to say, "Treat everybody alike." That's bull. Treat everybody fairly.
In a crisis, don't hide behind anything or anybody. They're going to find you anyway.
If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold, you gotta know the password, "Roll, Tide, Roll!"
Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.
You win games with your strengths, not your weaknesses.
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.
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.
The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself.
Don't give up. Reach down inside of you and you'll find something left.
Baton Rouge happens to be the worst place in the world for a visiting team. It's like being inside a drum.
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.
Don't tolerate lazy people. They are losers.
Losing doesn't make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.
If they don't have a winning attitude, I don't want them.
Don't worry about making friends; don't worry about making enemies. Worry about winning, because if you win, your enemies can't hurt you, and if you lose, your friends can't stand you.
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.
You take those little rascals, talk to them good, pat them on the back, let them think they are good, and they will go out and beat the biguns.
If you don't have discipline, you can't have a successful program.
Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.
I'm no miracle man. I guarantee nothing but hard work.
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.
There is no substitute for guts.
