Top 120 Bear Bryant Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “Don’t overwork your squad. If you’re going to make a mistake, under-work them.”

— Bear Bryant

52. “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.”

— Bear Bryant

53. “First there are those who are winners, and know they are winners. Then there are the losers who know they are losers. Then there are those who are not winners, but don’t know it. They’re the ones for me. They never quit trying. They’re the soul of our game.”

— Bear Bryant

54. “If you are going to be a successful duck hunter, you must go where the ducks are.”

— Bear Bryant

55. “Recruiting is the one thing I hate. I won’t do it unless my coaches tell me I’ve just got to. The whole process is kind of undignified for me and the young man.”

— Bear Bryant

56. “If they don’t have a winning attitude, I don’t want them.”

— Bear Bryant

57. “Never be too proud to get down on your knees and pray.”

— Bear Bryant

58. “I’m not much of a golfer, I don’t have any friends and all I like to do is go home and be alone, and not worry about ways not to lose.”

— Bear Bryant

59. “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.”

— Bear Bryant

60. “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.”

— Bear Bryant

61. “Sacrifice. Work. Self-discipline. I teach these things, and my boys don’t forget them when they leave.”

— Bear Bryant

62. “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.”

— Bear Bryant

63. “But it’s still a coach’s game. Make no mistake. You start at the top. If you don’t have a good one at the top, you don’t have a cut dog’s chance. If you do, the rest falls into place. You have to have good assistants, and a lot of things, but first you have to have the chairman of the board.”

— Bear Bryant

64. “At Alabama, our players don’t win Heisman Trophies. Our teams win National Championships.”

— Bear Bryant

65. “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 Bryant

66. “Don’t talk too much. Don’t pop off. Don’t talk after the game until you cool off.”

— Bear Bryant

67. “When I was a young coach I used to say, “Treat everybody alike.” That’s bull. Treat everybody fairly.”

— Bear Bryant

68. “I don’t care how much talent a team has – if the boys don’t think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how they play tough on Saturday.”

— Bear Bryant

69. “The idea of molding men means a lot to me.”

— Bear Bryant

70. “If there is one thing that has helped me as a coach, it’s my ability to recognize winners, or good people who can become winners by paying the price.”

— Bear Bryant

71. “The biggest mistake coaches make is taking borderline cases and trying to save them. I’m not talking about grades now, I’m talking about character. I want to know before a boy enrolls about his home life, and what his parents want him to be.”

— Bear Bryant

72. “Being inside Tiger Stadium is like being on the inside of a drum.”

— Bear Bryant

73. “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.”

— Bear Bryant

74. “I told them my system was based on the “ant plan,” that I’d gotten the idea watching a colony of ants in Africa during the war. A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.”

— Bear Bryant

75. “When you win, there’s glory enough for everybody. When you lose, there’s glory for none.”

— Bear Bryant

76. “I’ll put you through hell, but at the end of it all we’ll be champions.”

— Bear Bryant

77. “There is no sin in not liking to play; it’s a mistake for a boy to be there if he doesn’t want to.”

— Bear Bryant

78. “The Lord expects you to do some things for yourself.”

— Bear Bryant

79. “I think I’m telling the truth. I sat by Ray Perkins at the Hall of Fame dinner in New York, and at that time he didn’t know he was our coach and I didn’t either.”

— Bear Bryant

80. “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 Bryant

81. “I always want my players to show class, knock’em down, pat on the back, and run back to the huddle.”

— Bear Bryant

82. “The summer day is closed, the sun is set: Well they have done their office, those bright hours, The latest of whose train goes softly out In the red west.”

— Bear Bryant

83. “When you play defense you have to storm the fort or play cover – you can’t do both.”

— Bear Bryant

84. “A few minutes ago, I had a hard time getting through the lobby because of all the people. After today, that won’t be happening.”

— Bear Bryant

85. “Back 12 years ago, when Dr. Mathews was president here, we had a plan that when I got ready to quit, we’d bring a certain guy in and he’d take over that day and I’d leave. But as time wore on, I realized that wouldn’t have been good at all.”

— Bear Bryant

86. “I didn’t care if we ever quit practicing. I loved it. The only other guy I ever knew who loved it as much was Jerry Duncan. He would beg to practice even when he was hurt. I’ve actually seen him cry because the trainer told him he couldn’t scrimmage.”

— Bear Bryant

87. “I don’t have any ideas; my coaches have them. I just pass the ideas on and referee the arguments.”

— Bear Bryant

88. “I can remember loving to recruit. I knew I was going to do my best. But traveling and recruiting doesn’t appeal to me any more. It’s not as much fun as it used to be.”

— Bear Bryant

89. “I can reach a kid who doesn’t have any ability as long as he doesn’t know it.”

— Bear Bryant

90. “I ain’t never had much fun. I ain’t never been two inches away from a football. Here guys go fishing on the day of the game, hunting, golfing, and all I want to do is be alone, studying how not to lose.”

— Bear Bryant

91. “Georgia Tech beat us and Mississippi Southern tied us last year, and Texas beat us after we had the game won. We only played about five games the way we were capable of playing and lost one of those.”

— Bear Bryant

92. “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.”

— Bear Bryant

93. “If you whoop and holler all the time, the players just get used to it.”

— Bear Bryant

94. “If you don’t learn anything but self discipline, then athletics is worthwhile.”

— Bear Bryant

95. “Recognize winners. They come in all forms.”

— Bear Bryant

96. “There’s no use fussing on a boy who doesn’t have any ability.”

— Bear Bryant

97. “I want to make sure I don’t interfere with the success of that team next year. I don’t see any way I could go to practice like most of ’em do, and not hurt the team. I’d go nuts if I tried doing that.”

— Bear Bryant

98. “I ain’t won but one. My team won the rest in spite of me.”

— Bear Bryant

99. “Don’t give up. Reach down inside of you and you’ll find something left.”

— Bear Bryant

100. “The fun never goes out, but it changes with the years, with winning and losing.”

— Bear Bryant