Bobby Bowden Coach Quotations

Something has to happen that you can't coach.

I suppose I'm like most coaches now, standing on the sideline hoping somebody asks them a question.

The thing that drives most coaches out of coaching in college is they get tired of the grind of recruiting.

You can live by biblical principles, and you can teach by those principles and still be a winner. So many coaches think you've got to kick your players in the rear end. You've got to cuss them out. You've got to hit them across the head. No. You don't have to do that.

He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear, but then again he doesn't know the meaning of most words.

Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.

There's a saying in my business that there are two kinds of coaches - those who have been fired and those who haven't been fired yet. That's kind of like prostate cancer. Every man will have it if he lives long enough.

Joe Paterno, to me, is maybe the greatest coach ever in my opinion. I mean that truly, and I said that 10 years ago.

I always felt like this is good for him. When I was a coach at West Virginia they were trying to run me off. They wanted to fire me. I went through all that 'bye-bye Bobby' stuff, all that moving-van-in-the-front-yard stuff.

I hope the big thing they take is that they coach by the rules and don't take any shortcuts, ... We need good coaches - good people to be coaching. They have such an influence on these kids. A lot of them don't have the home life, the structure they would like to have.

I played in a lot of bizarre games, especially when it comes to missing field goal. I think when they pick the all-time missed-field goals coach I'll probably win that award. That is weird but we're masters at that.

It sure doesn't look like you'll see coaches stay at one place for a long time ever again. Administrators at some of the schools are getting jittery and at a drop of a hat will make a change. Times have changed so much that if you're not careful, it ain't as much fun anymore.

Weatherford has really gained from the first game of the year until the 13th game of the year. I coached against Joe when I was up at West Virginia and I saw those teams that dominate Eastern football. This team is as good as any of them and he hung in there with them.

I haven't talked to my coaches about it or looked at it (on film), but we probably got on him and frustrated him. So, there's a lot of learning there that has to be done.