I think you're always trying to figure yourself out and mistakes that you've made.
— Lane Kiffin
Toughness isn't that you've got to fight with the guy after the play or punch him because he punched you. That's not tough. That's dumb.
Once you start rooting against somebody, you're always going to look for the negative in everything they do.
I was a graduate assistant at Colorado State, and I think we got $550 a month.
Winning changes the perception of what you do, and whether it's a positive or a negative, even though it's the exact same thing.
Every season is a season of its own.
It's all right to have fun.
If I'm cussing at you, swearing at you, calling you demeaning names, are you really thinking about that last play? Am I really helping you get better? Or am I just making myself feel good by demeaning you? I've really never understood it.
Coach Saban and I have a great relationship, regardless of what people may think.
I'm very grateful to Coach Saban.
I needed Nick Saban more than I needed Pete Carroll.
I don't care about what people think about me that don't know me. But the one thing that bothers me of all the places is the general perception was that I was a failure at USC as a head coach.
There are different things I've done that I wouldn't do again that kept following me. That's the price that you pay when you make mistakes early on.
I know I get a lot of grief about some of the things I've said about Coach Saban, but working under him was like going back to school and getting another degree.
My phone was not ringing very much at the time after USC, and that was a very humbling experience after being let go there and to go through that process. You start calling a lot of people that don't call you back all of a sudden, and you realize things about people.
I think I was 24 when I went to USC with Pete Carroll. Pete believed in people and never worried about their age. I learned that from him.
I'm not driven by money anymore.
One game is never going to define a player.
Anybody can do something one time. You have a great year because everything goes right. But can you maintain it and sustain it for a long period of time as Coach Carroll did and Coach Saban?
Should we go back to huddling? Should we go back to putting all these tight ends in there and have 250 yards a game? It doesn't win anymore. So should we do it because that's what the people before us did? No.
When I was younger I used to read everything. 'Why is this guy saying this, why is this article saying this.' That's one of the things Coach Saban has taught me, he does not listen or read anything that's out there at all. He says 'why am I going to waste my time?'
Any time that you get big titles or head jobs at a young age, there's going to be that factor. 'He didn't pay his dues.'
Al Davis fires everybody.
To do the impossible, you must be able to see the invisible.
When you're a sports figure and people dislike you, they're going to look for the negatives.
I have a 'Golden Tee' machine in my house.
Age is irrelevant. Experience is relevant.
I'm not naive.
If you would have told me when I was 24 years old, right before I went with Coach Carroll to USC, you're going to get to be the offensive coordinator for Pete Carroll and then offensive coordinator for Nick Saban, arguably maybe the two best coaches in all of football by the time you're 40 years old, I would have said, 'Where do I sign up?'
You can be really hot one minute, the next minute be unemployed.
You can't just go visit somewhere and come away and know how they run their business.
I like helping first-year head coaches.
At Tennessee, I said I can't wait to beat Florida in the Swamp and sing 'Rocky Top' all night long. The thing at Tennessee I felt was that there needed to be energy in the program immediately. Two of the last three years there, they were 5-7. Urban Meyer and Nick Saban were at all-time highs. I felt like the fan base and players needed confidence.
It's almost like when you don't have money, you think it's important. And once you have it, you're like, 'Was I really happy because I have more money going into the bank? No.'
