I only won one national championship.

To win a national championship, you've got to be a little lucky.

That's why I'm here at UCLA - to help them win a national championship.

It's a long, hard, difficult process to make it to a national championship.

I want to win a national championship; that's been my dream since I was a child.

I've always won. I've won the state championship, national championship, all that stuff.

When you start using terms like national championship and playoffs, that's very rare air.

I wanted to win an SEC championship and a national championship. Those are the main goals.

Well, I think any national championship is an extremely important championship to play in.

My defense is a criticism, but we won a national championship at Duke, so it wasn't that bad.

We just want to win the natty - the national championship - and that's starts with a team, not just one person.

When your are playing for the national championship, it's not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

I might not have a conference championship or a national championship as a head coach, but I had the recruiting factor.

There are a lot of great players that never got a chance to play for a national championship. And I got a chance to play for two.

There's no greater feeling, I would imagine, than winning a national championship in that one year and then hopefully going to the NBA.

There's three banners I want to hang - ACC regular championship, ACC tournament championship, and, of course, the national championship.

Sometimes fans... they want more and more and more, and they think you win a national championship every year. It doesn't work that way.

When I talk about a successful program, define that. It's not just winning the national championship every year because nobody can do that.

Honestly, the Carolina games I played in every year were more intense than the national championship games I played in - they had a better environment.

During my 40-year coaching career at West Point, Indiana and Texas Tech, my teams reached the Final Four on five occasions, winning the national championship three times.

We are a global sport. I mean, golf is obviously played all around the world. But when you have your National Championship, of course, everybody in America is rooting for an American.

Somebody asked me - you know, how come it took you so long to win a national championship? And I said, 'I'm a slow learner; but you notice when I learn something, I have it down pretty good.'

If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.

The national championship for Syracuse in 2003 will always be the high-water mark for me. That was my alma mater, my team, my players, our fans. That remains the top experience of my basketball life.

Seattle is very similar to Minneapolis. I like the culture; I like the people. I raced a bike and won a national championship on Lake Washington in 1977, so I've had a connection there for a long time.

I got everything I wanted out of Texas. Obviously, you'd love to win more. You'd love to win a national championship and compete at that level. But as far as relationships and development, I couldn't be happier.

My biggest frustration with the Heisman is it's become the MVP of the national champion, or a team going to the National Championship game. That's what it's turned into. If you're not undefeated, you're out of the running.

Not many people do what Jameis Winston did: first year as a starter winning a national championship, only one loss in his two years as a starter. He's got great charisma. He's polarizing for some people, but he's a rare talent.

You think the end of my freshman year, from nobody really knowing who I was to skyrocketing onto the scene in the national championship game, there's nothing but good things to say after that. Then you get into the spotlight and it turns to hate.

There are some real memorable highlights in my history that, in my mind, are such milestones. Winning a national championship in college and being on the Olympic platform getting a gold medal. Visiting the Hall of Fame and going into the Hall of Fame.

I feel like I've always been doubted or slighted. Let's be honest. When you're a walk-on, you don't start for a No. 1 team, a national championship contender. You just don't. A walk-on is a guy who plays scout team, who's just happy to be on the team.

Once you win a National Championship, how do you do that again? How do you get the passion to do that again? We won it again right away, the next year. A lot of it had to do with the fact that I didn't give myself an opportunity to enjoy the first one.

They said 'the SEC this, the SEC that.' I said, 'You talk like all 14 teams are this, that and the other thing.' I said, 'You have to give credit to the first one or two that have won the national championship, but don't act like they're all doing that.'

I got to a point where I was doing county-level shows, but it was dressage that I really loved where, effectively, the horses are dancing. At one point, I was a groom for Hannah Esberger, who has competed for Great Britain and has seven national championship titles.

The one I was driving for at the time, Nissan, they pulled out after they won the championship, because it was costing millions of pounds to do a national championship and ok, that might be ok when you're doing an international championship, but not for a national one.

Once you start worrying about a national football championship, then you begin to worry about getting the quality of athlete, and the numbers needed, to win a national championship. And that worry leads to pressure to compromise academic standards to admit those athletes.

Of course my goal at Duke was to win the national championship, but we were shorthanded, and lost one of our big guys that was very important to the team. By the end of the season we only played about six guys. But we tried our hardest and did our best and overall had a successful season.

A lot of people talk about the Fab Five, and they were wonderful, one of the best teams you'll ever see in college basketball. But the '89 team is the best one to ever play at Michigan in my opinion because they won the national championship. Winning a championship is winning a championship.

I think when you win the national championship, it works throughout your team. Where human nature is to say, I did well. I got my quota this month. Now do I get some time off? Do I get a bonus? Do I get to go on a cruise? But it's not to keep trying to be the best. That's not necessarily human nature.

I think when you have a National Championship Game, a Super Bowl, a Final Four, a World Series, I don't see why there is any reason to pick out one individual as the MVP because it is about a team winning a championship. Maybe that best explains what I believe in at the core in my work as a broadcaster.

But I was always a bit of a gypsy, anyway. I spent five years at Oklahoma State, five years at Miami and moved on after winning the national championship, and five years with the Cowboys. So, I was ready to move on. We won back-to-back Super Bowls, and I felt that I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.

Most coaches would consider leading a team to an Olympic gold medal a capper for a pretty good year. The same goes for winning an NCAA national championship. Or a FIBA world championship. Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Duke Blue Devils and Team USA, led teams to each of these honors... within about 24 months.

I remember after that, when it was announced I was going to the Heisman ceremony, I didn't think I was going to win it because everybody was saying there was a bias against West Coast teams. I really hadn't paid attention to it. Winning the Heisman wasn't really a goal when I was younger. My goal was to go to USC and win a national championship.

Share This Page