Bobby Bowden Quotations

If somebody mistreats you, treat ?em good. That kills ?em.

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.

To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach.

A guy's who has all the money he needs and never faced any hard times, he won't have any character. But when you've had it tough and you've had it rough and you thought you were at the end of the rope and you work your way out of it, that's the way you build character.

I was always going to church with my mom, dad and sister. I was literally raised under the godly influence both at home and church. There was no alcohol and no smoking at our house. That was the way a Bowden was supposed to live. My dad always told me to represent the Bowden name in a respectful manner.

All my life, I've been right next to a football field. I never knew nothing else.

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.

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

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.

People that are brilliant and successful, we think they've just always been that way. That's not the case. Most of them have had some tough adversity in their life. It's prepared them. I've never felt like you could develop character without adversity.

I won't miss coaching. What you miss is that camaraderie with those boys and the other coaches. You miss that.

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

Don't go to the grave with life unused.

A better ending could not have been scripted. Of course, if we had won, that would have been better.

He who gets the best players usually wins.

Even though I retired from coaching, I still believe that is my calling.

The Bible is big in my teaching. It's a wonder the ACLU didn't get after me pretty good. I really kept thinking they would. I took my boys to church. I took my football team to church. I only did it two times a year. Before I signed a kid, I'd write the parents and I'd tell that parent we were gong to take your son to church twice.

I guess I'll retire someday if I live that long.

I really believe God called on me to coach, and that is the reason I stayed in it for so long.

I've never made football my priority. My priorities are my faith and my dependence on God.

Football has always been a big part of my life. Almost from the day I was born, playing and coaching football were all I really ever wanted to do.

I wish he could have got by without that, but I guess that was asking too much. I thought it was a great call. They had the goal line defense in there and our defense played in real good.

I would expect him to be here. It is the right thing for him to do. He recognizes that he has some work to do, but he knows that he has some tools.

I was shocked that he wasn't first team All-ACC. It made so sense.

I would be if he did it all the time. He's run the ball well. Runs are popping out there.

No one has ever said anything to me about (retiring). Of course, if I lose about two more games, they will.

Now, they know how we feel. We finally stole one from them like they have been stealing from us. (Last night) was our time.

I don't consider that him . That was a reaction to the disease.

I don't feel like we need any more time. We need to play. We simply cannot find out anymore about ourselves until we play. There's not much more preparation can we do.

I don't expect Joe to hang it up (retire), to be honest with you, ... He's still young at heart. He still seems to be in good health. I think this really rejuvenates him.

I didn't like it a bit. So, we've had a pretty good little talk this week about that. It's one of those things that better not happen again.

(Lee) has trouble when he tries to guide the ball. He's got a good enough arm that he just needs to drop back and fire it.

Lee's reputation was probably more heralded than the other guy in the state, ... But Weatherford made the best of it.

Lee was missing them so far, I had to take him out.

Last year, we went to Aruba, ... Next year, I think they take us to Mexico. We spend a little more time talking when we're together on that (cruise).

We're just going to make sure that doesn't happen again, ... (Xavier) Lee could've been fresh.

Leon's got a chance, ... Last week, he couldn't have done it.

Mobile quarterbacks that can run and throw on the run have always given us fits. We picked the wrong time for the quarterback to have the best game I've ever seen him have.

Most of those times they were better. The last three or four games that we've played, you take one play out and we win it. You're losing by a field goal.

She wants her son to do good, but she know I got the credit cards.

He is such a mismatch for a lot of people.

Fred will do three things wrong for every five plays he's in there, ... But when gets his hands on the ball, it's what he can do with the ball. That's why you play him.

I am Exhibition B. Joe is Exhibition A. That's all we are. There's a game in there somewhere -- Penn State and Florida State are playing.

I get to sleep. The phone doesn't ring ... If I have a two-hour flight, I get to sleep for an hour-and-a-half.

I ended up signing for two hours. I mean it was nonstop.

I felt like we were looking at a team that might, could blow us out; we don't want another Colorado-Texas ballgame. What did you learn? ... We're playing Penn State, No. 3 in the nation. Now if we can hang with those guys, maybe we got the material to get back on up there where we belong.

I bet a lot of the people down here thought the same thing. But I can't do that. I'm sure he couldn't do that, either.

I felt like that guy was breaking out of there and probably taking four and five, I don't know, maybe six seconds to get the ball off, ... You can't cover people that long.

We've got to learn to play without penalties.

I look out there and see all these young guys around and wonder what my wife and I are doing there. Then I look at Joe and remember.

I always felt like a dominating defense has to start out front, and they are a good front. Typical Joe.

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.

He was sent home and will be suspended for this game for violating a team rule. That's all I will say about it.

He was having losing seasons. It's amazing. But it goes back to that old quarterback position . . . and getting good quarterbacking.

He was electrifying to me. He's exciting. He excites people around him, and he tried to get people excited around him. That's what you try to get your seniors to do. Some of them do it, but they do it in a quieter way. But this guy, he can't hold back.

We lost our best offensive linemen and moved a center to guard and then lost him, too, ... It affects you. It affects everybody. You can have all the skill players in the world, but if you don't have linemen who can block, you're not going to get it done.

He tried to go, but it didn't feel good, ... I don't think it's anything major. A couple days rest and he should be OK.

He has been that way all spring. Every time I see a collision out there I look around to see if No. 83 is out there, and it's usually him.

He has come out and run some and thrown the ball in drills; nothing live. He's getting some good work and that's what he needs to try to get himself back in there.

He's had good preparation, ... He's been exposed to some very good problems and he's come out on top. We've come out on top.

He was the quarterback who looked like a guard. But I remember his rollout passes.

He will not play and has been sent home for violating team rules.

He would get my vote. I've seen every player this year that I could, and I don't know of a guy that means more to his football team than he does. He just does it week after week after week after week.

He's going to have problems. He hasn't been on the field long enough in a game to know how to handle all the problems that can arrive. The only way he is going to get that is through experience.

He's gotten into a different situation now and needs to step it up. And it looks like he's got the message. He's got the physical part, the brutality part down. He just needs the finesse part, doing the things correctly and doing it smoothly. He's got the tools of somebody you can count on.

He's got tools. He's fast, tall, rangy, great desire, great human being.

He's healthy and you can tell a big difference.

When they pick the all-time missed field-goal coach, I'll probably get the award. We're masters at that.

He's got a year under his belt and 12 games under his belt and that makes a big difference. Experience is so valuable when it comes to making good decisions.

What do you lose? I think you probably lose your most solid, mature, leader and blocker.

He missed them so far, I took him out,

He does that several times during the game, ... And nine times out of 10, he's right.

He has the ability to play in the NFL. If there are extenuating circumstances, I support a decision to enter the draft, but you can make more money by staying an extra year.

We've been wanting to do it and he's been wanting to do it, so now is the time, ... He's been kind of non-existent this whole season out wide. We felt like the move to all that field would benefit him, but he has not been comfortable with it.

He makes a 3-yard run look like an All-American highlight.

He makes plays that are out of this world.

He makes plays that are out of this world. He can take a busted play and do more with it than I think anybody we've faced. This guy runs different. I don't know that you want to hem him up. It would be kind of like hemming up a bull.

He made big mistakes, but we're playing a freshman. Our quarterbacks have got to play better.

Joe is not with us and that's all that I can say about it.

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

Joe's showing the world he can get it done, when nobody thought he could. That reminded me of the Penn State teams we used to see.

I was amazed how he stood up all day like he did,

I was afraid he'd be a little tired, but he played the majority of the game (Monday night),

I was afraid they would get away from us.

I was concerned it was slipping away from us. I was very concerned.

Like I told my kids, what a great game to build (upon) going into next year. I thought our kids played about as hard and about as good as we could. If we could have eliminated penalties I think we might have won the game.

Like I've always said, I think you can make more money if you stay another year in school and work toward getting your diploma. But if there are extenuating circumstances, then I will support the decision to enter the draft. Antonio is an outstanding athlete and there is no doubt that he has the ability to play in the NFL.

Some guys practice pretty good and then they get in a game and they're a different person. These guys got talent. It's who can eliminate the error.

Starting against such good defensive teams is really a good start, but also you're going to learn more,

Really, it's like having another spring practice. That's very beneficial for your team.

Our quarterbacks had performed so well the week previous to this game in practice. Then you go in that ballgame and you look like a freshman, you know? So there's no doubt about it, now we've got to get them playing to their ability. ... And, of course, we'll try to blend our running game with it more.

Our offensive approach is pretty much set. We've decided we're going to go after 'em (opposing defenses),

Last time you're playing at home (this season), I thought we'd go out there and jump all over them. We're just not a dominating team right now.

Jeffrey catches all the criticism. But he doesn't do anything I don't tell him to do. I have to know everything he's doing. I have to know what plays he's calling and working on. So it's as much my fault as anybody's. But nobody is going to believe it, because it's your kid.

Jeffrey has handled it good and he's handled it better than I would've thought. Hey, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't win.

I thought Joe was gonna tackle the dad-gum horse. I was gonna tell him, 'Go high on him, don't go low.' I remember Joe running out there and getting upset about that.

I was just hoping he was going to go out there and win the game for us,

Joe and I both thought it was a great football game. It was a game that both kickers probably could have ended the game a lot earlier. We'd miss. They'd miss. We'd miss. They'd miss.

I think the best is ahead of us.

Our chances of winning the conference championship five years ago was 95 percent, ... Now it's down to 50-50.