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.

You try to make your team do something they're not capable of and you get murdered.

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

A champion pays an extra price to be better than anyone else.

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.

I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.

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.