Quotes by Nick Saban

I played so long ago, I don't think anybody even knew you could transfer. I don't think they knew anything about it.

People talk about you won four national championships. Well, I feel like we've had good enough teams to win eight. So I feel like we failed four times. I feel like I failed four times.

When people have success, one of two things happen. They either get really satisfied and want to keep thinking about it and talking about what they did, or the success becomes a little addictive, and it makes them want to keep having more.

I don't control what people put on dot-com or anything else. So I'm just telling you there's no significance, in my opinion, about this, about me, about any interest that I have in anything other than being the coach here.

I don't think I'm complicated at all. I'm not political, and I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, and I don't say bad things about people. There is no
agenda. There's no trying to fool somebody.

If I were a high school coach, I would put my best players on offense. The best athletes on my team, I would give them the ball and score points. I wouldn't play them on defense. I would play them where they can get the ball and score points.

Eliminate the clutter and all the things that are going on outside and focus on the things that you can control with how you sort of go about and take care of your business. That's something that's ongoing, and it can never change.

I've always been able to stay focused on trying to recruit good players and trying to develop those players.

When you have a system, you kind of get in a routine of what's important. And then you spend a lot more time on thinking of things that would make it better.

To be a great player, you have to affect the entire unit.

We don't have rules that people can't use Twitter. We just want people to be responsible. We certainly don't want them to do anything that's going to affect themselves in an adverse way or affect our program, our university, or our team in an adverse way.

There is no continuum for success. Focus on the progress, not the results.

It's a free country. I know we have a lot of regulations in the world right now in what we can and can't do. I would rather our people be responsible and not have to be regulated.

Golf is a great example to me. Golf is a metaphor of life. I mean, every shot. You have this beautiful hole, this beautiful opportunity to get a good score.

Do what you do and be who you are.

Any team that does not win it's conference championship game should not play in the BCS title game.

I'm tired of hearing all this talk from people who don't understand the process of hard work-like little kids in the back seat asking 'Are we there yet?' Get where you're going 1 mile-marker at a time.

In the NFL you get one first-round draft pick if you're lucky. You couldn't really outwork anybody else. In college I could recruit ten players with first-round talent every year.

There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.

The roster that we have today may change tomorrow. It is what it is for right now.

Be all you can be in whatever you choose to do. The sky is the limit, so go for it. And do not create any self-imposed limitations.

Live by the creed that a strong work ethic, playing by the rules, and doing things the right way will bring about opportunities for success and, ultimately, happiness.

The thing that concerns me the most is when I hear that people are making a lot of money a lot of ways except for the athletes, whether it's on the bowl games, the TV contracts, the conferences, the schools, the coaches, however you want to say it.

I said as soon as we had a playoff, we were going to minimize the importance of all the other bowl games. I'm not saying it's good or bad; it kind of is what it is.

I don't know how many times I've been 114 yards from the hole and made double bogey. Well, I hit a great drive, but it doesn't matter. It's only the next shot that matters.

I don't control what people say. I don't control what people put on dot-com or anything else.

I think people who grow up in one particular environment, like the Alabama-Auburn game, they don't ever get the same appreciation for the Ohio State-Michigan game or the Michigan State-Notre Dame game or the Michigan-Michigan State game, the Browns and the Steelers.

I don't know if I'm different from everybody else, but there's really only two things to me that are really, really important -- recruiting good players in the program and developing those players once they get here.

I think people always assume that every team has great intangibles, and that's not necessarily right.

The way I look at it is, if you don't want somebody to know something, don't say it. If you don't want them to see you do something, don't do it.

I don't try to sensationalize anybody. I'm not trying to entertain. I'm trying to give information and give access to me and tell about our program.

Once you get good, you need a total disposition about staying good.

I think center is a critical position.

If we'd had Drew Brees, I might still be in Miami.

Honesty and integrity is an important part of our character, my character.

George Perles at Michigan State was the first coach that gave me responsibility as far as being a coordinator. I learned a lot from that experience.

We played in a number of these neutral site games, I would call them, whether it's a playoff game, a bowl game, or one of these kickoff classic type things, which I think is helpful to, you know, our players in terms of playing some place that's not really a home game for them.

Rex Ryan does a lot of the same kind of stuff that we do in terms of how they play in the secondary and what they do.

I think the worst thing a player can do is just not be yourself.

We all have anxiety about things. We all have little insecurities, but eventually you have to face your fears if you want to be successful, and everybody has some fear of failure.

There's certain things that I was taught growing up about not quitting and seeing things through. I think if I would have come home and told my dad that I was going to quit the team, I think he would have kicked me out of the house. I don't think I'd have a place to stay.

I think there's a certain pride people have in competition.

I don't believe you name a starter until the starter wins the team.

Steph Curry is special in terms of the kind of competitor he is.

I guess I'm motivated by the fear of failure to some degree and knowing what can happen when you don't do things the way you need to do them to have success.

I'm not going to be the Alabama coach.

College football is the only game in the country, of any kind, that the college game is longer than the pro game.

I think I'm pretty misunderstood, because I'm not just about football.

My wife gets so mad at me because I don't like to cook on the grill.

I think you have to be more flexible to be a pro coach because once you pay the guy the money, whether he can backpedal the way you want him to or whatever, his style of play may not suit you, but you still are going to play him, and he is going to be a part of your team.

One thing about championship teams is that they're resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity.

Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people.

You wear your team out, and it's hard to get them back.

If you're a coach, you're a teacher.

I never want to discontinue giving kids opportunities.

I don't want people to think I'm not happy when we win -- I am. But there's a difference between being happy for the feeling of accomplishing something and being overjoyed and feeling, 'This is it -- we conquered the world.' We didn't. We just won a game.

We create a standard for how we want to do things, and everybody's got to buy into that standard or you really can't have any team chemistry.

I enjoyed the NFL. I respected the players. It was a great opportunity to learn a lot of things, but the challenges were a little different, and it didn't seem that you could control your own destiny, especially in terms of how you could bring players to the team.

When I talk about a successful program, define that. It's not just winning the national championship every year because nobody can do that.

There needs to be somebody that looks out for what's best for the game, not what's best for the Big 10 or what's best for the SEC or what's best for Jim Harbaugh, but what's best for the game of college football -- the integrity of the game, the coaches, the players, and the people that play it.

I want what's best for our country. I'm not sure I can figure that out.

It's been our goal as a program to always give our players the best opportunity to be successful, whether it's personally, academically, or athletically.

One thing I always tell players is that there are three bad things: Nothing good happens after midnight, nothing good happens when you're around guns unless you're going hunting, and you don't want to mess around with women that you don't know because a lot of times, bad things happen.

My wife goes to Birmingham five times a week. My mom lives in Birmingham now after moving from Myrtle Beach. It's not just the job. A lot of people don't get that. My life is here.

You can't allow yourself to be vulnerable.

Bill Belichick was probably the most organized coach that I've ever been involved with.