I want kids to continue to enjoy our game and benefit from the rewards of playing the ultimate team sport. That's why it's important for young players, parents, and coaches to know about U.S.A. Football's Head Up Football program.

What is a coach? We are teachers. Educators. We have the same obligations as all teachers, except we probably have more influence over young people than anybody but their families. And, in a lot of cases, more than their families.

People's perception changes so fast. You win, and people say, 'Well, he had all of those sanctions at USC, and that's why he lost.' You lose, and, 'OK, he's a bad head coach, and he's just a good play-caller wherever he has been.'

I think what coaching is all about, is taking players and analyzing there ability, put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning. And I hope that I've done that in my 33 years as a head coach.

Eliminate the clutter and all the things that are going on outside and focus on the things that you can control with how you sort of go about and take care of your business. That's something that's ongoing, and it can never change.

I don't think I'm complicated at all. I'm not political, and I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, and I don't say bad things about people. There is no agenda. There's no trying to fool somebody.

Each situation has to be handled as a unique situation. But I think if you want your guys to stay in school and graduate and one of these opportunities comes along, you have to be willing to work with him, you have to give a little.

There are certain things in this world we all have in common such as time. Everybody has sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty-four hours to a day. The difference is what we do with that time and how we use it.

It doesn't change whether it's Georgia, Clemson or Florida or Tennessee. You have to fight out there on the recruiting trail every day. And recruiting's a lot like shaving: If you don't do it every day, you start looking like a bum.

I learned a long time ago that at the end of the day, the only stat that counts is points, The other ones are significant, but I'd much rather have the right score on the board. At the end of the day, that's what we're worried about.

When a guy comes unofficially, then he, to me, is sending you a message that, 'You know what? Hey, I'm interested in Clemson.' Now, he may hate it when he gets here. But at least he came on his own. That's just my personal philosophy.

Soccer is a continuous game, rugby is a continuous game, but for the physical elements that are involved in playing a football game and the number of plays that you play, I don't know that it was ever intended to be a continuous game.

I’m really looking forward to embracing some of the great traditions at the University of Tennessee, for instance the Vol Walk, running through the T, singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida next year. It will be a blast

I do get away maybe a little bit more than most coaches do, but that seems to have worked for me in my coaching career. I recommended the way not to get burned out from your job is to have some hobbies and get away from it when you can.

There's some criminals that wear badges. Guess what? There's some criminals that work in the media. There's some criminals that are football coaches. There's some criminals that are politicians. There are criminals that work in churches.

We don't condone it, but it happened. Is there a concern Yes, there is a concern. People are going to think what they think. But the reality is, I know the players we have, I know the character we have. We're recruiting the right people.

We are not going to win because you have a new head coach, any more than you are going to fix a flat tire by changing the driver. We will win the minute all of us get rid of excuses as to why we can't win and stop wallowing in self-pity.

My life's pretty simple. Look at hours and hours of film to try to find some things that will work on Saturday. Try to have a good practice every day. Use the offseason to recruit and build the culture of the locker room. That's my deal.

The bottom line is, as the season goes on, everybody becomes more comfortable. For a quarterback, it's more than just him. It's everybody else doing things. Offense is all about how things work as a unit. It's everybody being comfortable.

If I'm cussing at you, swearing at you, calling you demeaning names, are you really thinking about that last play? Am I really helping you get better? Or am I just making myself feel good by demeaning you? I've really never understood it.

There's a reason they only serve fruitcake once a year, because it's awful. There's a reason they only serve mint julep's once a year, because they're awful. And there's a reason they only serve candy corn once a year, because it's awful.

I love that about college football. I love all the funky matchups. I love the Funky Cold Medina Poulan Weed Eater Bowl. I love all of that. I like the crazy games. There's obviously a market for it because them TVs love to put it on there.

As long as I've been at Clemson, there's not a guy that's more committed to Clemson than Kelly Bryant. There's not a better leader. This guy, he's the epitome of what you want. He's what you want your son to be like. I love him like a son.

At home I have a copy of the April 21, 1986, issue of 'Sports Illustrated.' I'm on the cover with the blurb, 'Can Lou Do It?' I'd just arrived at Notre Dame, and with spring football underway, I was the focal point of that week's coverage.

I think you can be the greatest orator of all time, the greatest motivator of all times, but if those players know that you don't care about them, and you don't try to understand them, then they're never going to hear what you have to say.

When people have success, one of two things happen. They either get really satisfied and want to keep thinking about it and talking about what they did, or the success becomes a little addictive, and it makes them want to keep having more.

Edwards commented as he signed an extension to his contract. They had changed coaches every three or four years before my getting the head job. It was just going to be a matter of when I got fired. There were a lot of people that felt that.

Nothing drives me more than to, hopefully, be able to hand (Steelers chairman Dan Rooney) that fifth (Vince Lombardi) trophy. If I can do that, then I would think, that when he brought me here, I finally accomplished what he wanted me to do.

I wanted to be my'self and I wanted the play'ers to take pride in ev'ery'thing they did. We rep'resent the Pitts'burgh Steel'ers but we also rep'resent the city of Pitts'burgh. You're a leader and a role model, whether you want to be or not.

The things you don't have control over, you don't worry about. I have control over my attitude, my perception, how I do things, and you do the very best job you can. Other people have control over other things and you let them do their jobs.

We were at a beach one summer, and I had a bathing suit on. My wife looked at me and said: 'Boy, you are skinny, aren't you?' I said: 'Honey, I'd like to remind you that it was minor defects like this that kept me from getting a better wife.'

If I were a high school coach, I would put my best players on offense. The best athletes on my team, I would give them the ball and score points. I wouldn't play them on defense. I would play them where they can get the ball and score points.

But at some point, we've got to have disciplined play and have got to coach better. I'm not putting it on the players. We've got to coach them to tackle and block better. It's as simple as that. If we can do those things, we'll have a chance.

I see a lot of myself in a young Mike Vrabel. He is very competitive. He is very respectful of the game, but he looks at each opportunity as an opportunity to prove something that people don't think you can do, and he'll create that narrative.

Sport is a product of human culture. America seems to need football at this state of our social development. When you get ninety million people watching a single game on television, it ... shows you that people need something to identify with.

We know who is out there as far as available quarterbacks, but in reality, no one would be more prepared or capable as a No. 2 at this point than Dan. He got more snaps in the preseason than any of our quarterbacks and continues to get better.

Success and excellence are not the same. Excellence grows within a person, is largely within that person's control, and its meaning lasts. Success is measured externally, by comparison to others, is often outside our control, and is perishable.

What I've been telling everyone that loves Carolina football is that we are going to put a team out there that, number one, is in good shape. We're going to be fit, we are going to be able to play the whole game and we're not going to poop out.

As long as Will Muschamp is the head coach at the University of Florida, Urban Meyer will be a part of this program. He needs to be involved with this program for our players. He's a great sounding board for me and part of this great tradition.

I always tell people, good coaches are a dime a dozen. Good coaches that are good people, good husbands, good fathers, that love their players and are passionate about doing things in a way that I believe is important, that pool gets real small.

All winning teams are goal-oriented. Teams like these win consistently because everyone connected with them concentrates on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on; nothing will distract them from achieving their aims.

Recruiting at Iowa has never been easy, and I don't think it ever will be. Our biggest challenge has always been to get people to visit our campus. If we can get them here, I feel like we give ourselves a chance because we do have a lot to offer.

Micheal Barrow and Darrin Smith, those guys were really intelligent. They're smart football players. They'd always be a step ahead of the offense and could predict what was coming. Dan Morgan has that. Jonathan Vilma has that. Ray Lewis has that.

I like Modernism. I grew up around these sort of eclectic, heavily carved, baroque, rococo, highly ornamented styles that were in my life from the time that I was a child until now in my business life. So I like clean, straight, minimalist lines.

We want to create a problem for the defense, a moment of indecision as they figure out how they want to play against whatever formation we may show. We get a slight edge this way. Also, we create the opportunity for a defense to make more mistakes.

The thing that concerns me the most is when I hear that people are making a lot of money a lot of ways except for the athletes, whether it's on the bowl games, the TV contracts, the conferences, the schools, the coaches, however you want to say it.

All the projects that coaches go through in the offseason are based on the success other teams had in every area whether it's offense, defense or special teams. What they do is see if they can incorporate anything they see with the people they have.

In this league you might have a quarterback within your division that you're worried about running all over the place, the next week it's a running back, so to be able to have multiple answers for every situation is probably a benefit for everybody.

To teach an academic subject is certainly not easy, but compared to coaching, it is. We can say two plus two is four to every kid and be sure that we are right. But in coaching, we have to literally get to the soul of the people we are dealing with.

Our coaches want to be a part of South Carolina football when they win it for the first time. When they win the division, when they win the SEC, win a major bowl game, etc. The opportunities to do it all for the first time here make it extra special.

Share This Page