I'm not a sympathetic guy when I see people throwing their lives away and using their life's obstacles as excuses to fail. I just don't buy into that.
— Dabo Swinney
Listen, I come from the most screwed-up dysfunctional situation. You've got violence. Police at your house. Your dad's gone. Nowhere to live. I want people to know, if I can make it, anybody can make it.
You better have an anchor in life. It doesn't matter if you're a Division I head football coach or Joe Schmo from Okemoh. Bad things happen. If you're not anchored, you're going to be washed away.
I was one of those kids who watched the Bear Bryant Show every Sunday, and every time Alabama played, I was listening on the radio. I'd fight you if you talked bad about Alabama.
My entire life, nothing's been easy. This is the way it ought to be.
I always tell people, good coaches are a dime a dozen. Good coaches that are good people, good husbands, good fathers, that love their players and are passionate about doing things in a way that I believe is important, that pool gets real small.
Fans can have whatever mindset they want to have. But I don't want anything to creep into the culture of our program, because our players, they get stuff pushed at them - social media.
I love that about college football. I love all the funky matchups. I love the Funky Cold Medina Poulan Weed Eater Bowl. I love all of that. I like the crazy games. There's obviously a market for it because them TVs love to put it on there.
I'm just telling you: I don't know what the heck I'm talking about - I'm just an old funky college coach - but Deshaun Watson is the best by a long shot.
I've always really respected Mark Richt. I think he's a great man, first of all, and I think he's a great coach and a guy that truly cares about the players and always has.
In recruiting, you talk about anything and everything a recruit wants to talk about that seems relevant.
I've had people say things to me like, 'Don't change.' I don't know how to be anything other than myself.
I am who I am. At the end of the day, you've got to be who you are.
It's the journey to get there. It's that moment in that locker room when you're with a group of people that have gotten it done. There's nothing like it. If you could bottle that up and take that out in the world, you'd dominate.
If Alabama were 8-4, they'd still be dominating the conversation.
As I've said many times, it's one thing to dream about something; it's another thing to experience it. It's one thing to think you're good enough; it's another thing to know you're good enough.
Everyone will be judged one day, but it's not up to me to judge somebody.
I've never seen myself as a second-class citizen.
My father figures were my coaches.
I'm not perfect. I don't claim to be perfect. So, when people point out I'm imperfect, so what? That's just who I am.
I was the first one in my family to go to college.
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.
I don't ever want to come in the locker room and have players in there pouting.
I hate the fact that, all of a sudden now, it's not cool to go to the Gator Bowl. Are you kidding me? I don't like that mindset.
I'm not a 'more is better' guy.
I'm the biggest pansy you've ever seen.
I'm counting every silver lining I can get.
Any time you have a Heisman-caliber player, it just - that means he's a Heisman guy for a reason. So usually, that - for your team, that means a lot of big plays. Usually, there's a lot of wins tied to those Heisman guys, that's for sure. So it's always great when you got great players.
I know the price I've paid to be where I am.
I just look back at my entire life. You know, my faith. I knew that I was where I was supposed to be.
We work too hard to be miserable.
It's hard for me to come up with a plan and hold my players accountable until I self-evaluate and hold myself accountable.
Everything in life is how you respond to it. If everything went perfect all the time - you never lost a game, you got to the championship every time, you always won, you always got the top recruit, you always made the A - you really wouldn't truly appreciate all that goes into it.
A football team is really just a reflection of society. You've got 118, 120 guys on the team, you got a little bit of everything.
No, we don't control who our parents are. We don't control what color we are. We don't control what home we are born into. But we control our attitude. We control our work ethic. We control our drive and our commitment.
When you lose a parent, it's a strange feeling. It's a hard thing to get used to.
I want to get to the top. I want to be the best. But I want to do it the right way and to enjoy the whole deal.
My dad was a great man, and I loved him, but he had some demons he fought. It was tough to see some of those things as a kid, but I believe God doesn't save you from things; he saves you through them.
My driving force in this business is to create and build great men, and to do that, you have to have great relationships.
A win is a win, and I've just always felt that way, and I've always been passionate about that.
I love the trips that I've experienced as a player and a coach.
I'm not going to apologize for having a great team and a great program and a bunch of committed guys, and Coach Saban is not, either.
I'm a wimp. I'm from Alabama. I don't like the cold.
My job is to recruit the best players I can recruit. When they get here, challenge them and grow them into their best version.
The thing I enjoy the most about being the head coach is that I get to create the climate. I get to control the environment everybody comes to work in every day, and I'm very in tune to the chemistry, the morale of my staff, my support staff, my secretaries, the guy cleaning the building, the players, the walk-ons.
I've just never really gotten caught up in what people think about me, because I can't control that.
You're looking at a guy who grew up in the state of Alabama, and my dream was to play there.
I just made a decision a long time ago: I'm not going to be defined by a scoreboard.
There's a lot of 'oops' from us in life as people. I always say that God never says 'oops.' That's just kind of how I've always lived my life, but we're so imperfect that there's a lot of times that we say, 'Oops, my bad.'
As long as I've been at Clemson, there's not a guy that's more committed to Clemson than Kelly Bryant. There's not a better leader. This guy, he's the epitome of what you want. He's what you want your son to be like. I love him like a son.
