I could sum it up in one thing: A guy has to be what he is. He's got to coach and have a philosophy based on his own personality. You see too many coaches trying to imitate other coaches, trying to be someone else. It's all right to emulate the qualities of good coaches but I don't think you should imitate. You've got to be yourself.
LaVell EdwardsI had to come up with some criteria to help me; i.e., what the favor was, if it was legitimate, if it was in no way compromising, and if there would be a benefit some way by my participation.
LaVell EdwardsI can't think of anything I would do differently in my life. It would be nice to undo some of my mistakes I made over the years, but then I wouldn't have grown professionally or personally.
LaVell EdwardsCurrent condition of the BYU football program? I think it's in good shape. We've got some good young players. We've had two or three pretty good recruiting years. We lost some players, obviously, that hurt us, but you always have turnover in college through attrition (graduation, transfers). That's the nature of the game.
LaVell EdwardsProfessionally - I had the opportunity to play sports throughout my youth, in high school and college. Early on, I decided I wanted to be a coach so I tried to learn everything I could about all positions on the team.
LaVell EdwardsConsidering retirement? When that happens, I don't want that to be the story of whatever the season it is. I don't want to have to be talking about it all the time. My plan is when the time is up, it'll be time to hang it up. When that comes, it'll come. But right now, I don't have any clue as to when that'll be. It's been that way the last couple of years. . . . I've often felt if I ever get to a point where I don't want to go recruiting and can't get excited about it, then maybe it's time. That's a pretty good indication that's probably it. And I haven't reached that point at all yet.
LaVell EdwardsCommenting on playoffs to determine a national champion: I'm not in favor of 15 games either. I think that's way too much football. The thing that I feel good about is that these guys hung together through 15 games and played hard every week. That's a marvelous tribute to the kids. We just hung in there today and kept playing. It's just been a special feeling all year long.
LaVell Edwards