As the College football season cranks up again, the web has been filled with a number of great examples of leadership from famous college coaches, and even a few players. The Aquila Report wants to keep our readers informed; and who knows, a preacher might even find an illustration for use in a sermon this fall.

Impossible to determine the source of this list – our copy came from a guy named Butch! Thanks, Butch.

“Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble the football!”
John Heisman
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“Show me a good and gracious loser, and I’ll show you a failure.”
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
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“I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.”
Bear Bryant / Alabama
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“It isn’t necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it.”
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
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“At Georgia Southern, we don’t cheat. That costs money, and we don’t have any.”
Erk Russell / Georgia Southern.
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“Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas.”
Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.
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“After you retire, there’s only one big event left, and I ain’t ready for that.”
Bobby Bowden / Florida State
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“The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.”
Lou Holtz / Arkansas
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“When you win, nothing hurts.”
Joe Namath / Alabama
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“Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.”
Lou Holtz / Arkansas
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“If you want to walk the heavenly streets of gold you gotta know the password, “Roll, tide, roll!”
Bear Bryant / Alabama
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“A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.”
Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
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“There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.”
Woody Hayes / Ohio State
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“I don’t expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation.”
Bob Devaney / Nebraska
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“In Alabama, an atheist is someone who doesn’t believe in Bear Bryant.”
Wally Butts / Georgia
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“You can learn more character on the two-yard line than anywhere else in life.”
Paul Dietzel / LSU
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“It’s kind of hard to rally around a math class.”
Bear Bryant / Alabama
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When asked if Fayetteville was the end of the world: “No, but you can see it from here.”
Lou Holtz / Arkansas
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“There’s one sure way to stop us from scoring: Give us the ball near the goal line.”
Matty Bell / SMU
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“Lads, you’re not to miss practice unless your parents died or you died.”
Frank Leahy / Notre Dame
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“I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms – Truman’s and Eisenhower’s.”
Alex Karras / Iowa
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“My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor.”
Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee
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“I could have been a Rhodes Scholar, except for my grades.”
Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
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“Always remember: Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David.”
Shug Jordan / Auburn
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“They cut us up like boarding house pie…and that’s real small pieces.”
Darrell Royal / Texas
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“They whipped us like a tethered goat..”
Spike Dykes / Texas Tech
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“I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn’t recruit me and he said: “Well, Walt, we took a look at you, and you weren’t any good.”
Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State
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“Son, you’ve got a good engine, but your hands aren’t on the steering wheel.”
Bobby Bowden / Florida State
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“Football is not a contact sport – it is a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.”
Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State
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After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his post game message to his team: “All those who need showers take them.”
John McKay / USC
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“If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.”
Murray Warmath / Minnesota
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“The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb.”
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
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“We played about like three tons of buzzard puke this afternoon.”
Spike Dykes / Texas Tech
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“We didn’t tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking.”
John McKay / USC
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“Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad.”
Darrell Royal / University of Texas
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“I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.”
Knute Rockne / Notre Dame
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