You're still going to win with preparation and dedication and plain old desire. If you don't have genuine desire, you won't be dedicated enough to prepare properly.
Bear BryantRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Successful coaching requires a supportive team, the ability to identify talent, and comprehensive planning.
Bear Bryant emphasizes that effective coaching is founded on three essential rules: surrounding oneself with dedicated individuals, recognizing potential in different forms, and having meticulous plans for various scenarios. This approach highlights the importance of teamwork, awareness, and readiness to adapt in challenging situations, underscoring that leadership is not just about direction but also about preparation and collaboration.
Themes
CoachingLeadershipPlanningTeamworkSuccess
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech during a team meeting before a big game.
More from Bear Bryant
All quotes →Don't ever give up on ability. Don't give up on a player who has it.
Bear BryantRead
Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don't forget them when they leave.
Bear BryantRead
I'm no genius, but I'm a damn good football coach.
Bear BryantRead
There's a lot of blood, sweat, and guts between dreams and success.
Bear BryantRead
You have to learn what makes this or that Sammy run. For one it's a pat on the back, for another it's eating him out, for still another it's a fatherly talk, or something else. You're a fool if you think as I did as a young coach, that you can treat them all alike.
Bear BryantRead
Similar quotes
On a good team there are no superstars. There are great players who show they are great players by being able to play with others as a team. They have the ability to be superstars, but if they fit into a good team, they make sacrifices, they do things necessary to help the team win. What the numbers are in salaries or statistics don't matter; how they play together does.
Red HolzmanRead
In peace-armies discipline meant the hunt, not of an average but of an absolute; the hundred per cent standard in which the ninety-nine were played down to the level of the weakest man on parade.... The deeper the discipline, the lower was the individual excellence; also the more sure the performance.
T. E. LawrenceRead
Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.
Colin PowellRead
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
John F. KennedyRead
This power ought to be coextensive with all the possible combinations of such circumstances; and ought to be under the direction of the same councils which are appointed to preside over the common defense.
Alexander HamiltonRead
The biggest of the big ideas that guided the strategy during the surge was explicit recognition that the most important terrain in the campaign in Iraq was the human terrain - the people - and our most important mission was to improve their security.
David PetraeusRead