Tomorrow starts my 12th season coaching high school football. With that in mind, I thought I’d share a few favorite quotes from legendary college football coach, Bear Bryant:

“It’s not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”

“There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.”

“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.”

“Mama wanted me to be a preacher. I told her coachin’ and preachin’ were a lot alike.”

“Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.”

“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.”