Bear Bryant
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryantwas an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships. Upon his retirement in 1982, he held the record for most wins as head coach in collegiate football history with 323 wins. The Paul W. Bryant Museum, Paul W. Bryant Hall, Paul W. Bryant Drive, and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth11 September 1913
CityFordyce, AR
CountryUnited States of America
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.
At Alabama, our players don't win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.
If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it.
Everybody's got pretty good players now, more players than there've ever been. If you play poorly, you're going to get beat.
If a man is a quitter, I'd rather find out in practice than in a game. I ask for all a player has so I'll know later what I can expect.
I tell young players who want to be coaches, who think they can put up with all the headaches and heartaches, can you live without it? If you can live without it, don't get in it.
It's been years since I've had a real input in the game anyway. For this game, I've just tried to keep all the other stuff away from the players and coaches.
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.
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.
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.
No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it's what his players know that counts.
But there's one thing about quitters you have to guard against - they are contagious. If one boy goes, the chances are he'll take somebody with him, and you don't want that. So when they would start acting that way, I used to pack them up and get them out, or embarrass them, or do something to turn them around.
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.
I've made so many mistakes that if I don't make the same mistakes over, we're going to come pretty close to winning.