Top 49 Quotes & Sayings by Bobby Bowden

A boy needs a male figure, and the girls do, too. Somebody to discipline them and make them be a man.

If somebody mistreats you, treat 'em good. That kills 'em.

I've never made football my priority. My priorities are my faith and my dependence on God.

During my last days at Florida State, 65 to 70 percent of my boys did not have a daddy at home. They're raised by mommas. Thank God for them mommas, or grandmommas. Or big sister or aunt.

Faith is the most important thing in the world to me. It's the greatest strength I've had. It's helped me get through the hard times. You're not going to win every one of your football games. I've always said I'm not going to make football my god. A lot of coaches put so much into coaching football games that they have nothing left.

The Bible is big in my teaching. It's a wonder the ACLU didn't get after me pretty good. I really kept thinking they would. I took my boys to church. I took my football team to church. I only did it two times a year. Before I signed a kid, I'd write the parents and I'd tell that parent we were gong to take your son to church twice.

Even though I retired from coaching, I still believe that is my calling.

I guess I'll retire someday if I live that long.

A better ending could not have been scripted. Of course, if we had won, that would have been better.

He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear, but then again he doesn't know the meaning of most words.

A guy's who has all the money he needs and never faced any hard times, he won't have any character. But when you've had it tough and you've had it rough and you thought you were at the end of the rope and you work your way out of it, that's the way you build character.

I really believe God called on me to coach, and that is the reason I stayed in it for so long.

People that are brilliant and successful, we think they've just always been that way. That's not the case. Most of them have had some tough adversity in their life. It's prepared them. I've never felt like you could develop character without adversity.

All my life, I've been right next to a football field. I never knew nothing else.

I won't miss coaching. What you miss is that camaraderie with those boys and the other coaches. You miss that.

The thing that drives most coaches out of coaching in college is they get tired of the grind of recruiting.

There's a saying in my business that there are two kinds of coaches - those who have been fired and those who haven't been fired yet. That's kind of like prostate cancer. Every man will have it if he lives long enough.

The heck with political correctness. I've never believed in it.

He who gets the best players usually wins.

You can live by biblical principles, and you can teach by those principles and still be a winner. So many coaches think you've got to kick your players in the rear end. You've got to cuss them out. You've got to hit them across the head. No. You don't have to do that.

Do I think God is going to win football games? Oh no. I never prayed to God to help us win a game. I would pray for the safety of the players. I would pray that they would do their best. I think God will answer that.

To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened. Something has to happen that you can't coach.

Football has always been a big part of my life. Almost from the day I was born, playing and coaching football were all I really ever wanted to do.

Don't go to the grave with life unused.

I was always going to church with my mom, dad and sister. I was literally raised under the godly influence both at home and church. There was no alcohol and no smoking at our house. That was the way a Bowden was supposed to live. My dad always told me to represent the Bowden name in a respectful manner.

I'm not too proud to change. I like to win too much.

That boy don't know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades, and that boy don't know the meaning of a lot of words.

When I go after something, I go after it hard. It has always been that way. I don't know. It's in my blood.

Courage is doing something you need to do that might get you hurt.

As good as we were, we didn’t win a National Championship until 1993, mainly because we kept losing to Miami on missed kicks. I used to get mad because nobody else would play Miami. Notre Dame would play them, then drop them. Florida dropped them. Penn State dropped them. We would play Miami and lose by one point on a missed field goal, and it would knock us out of the National Championship. I didn’t want to play them, either, but I had to play them. That’s why I said, 'When I die, They’ll say, ‘At least he played Miami.'

I've always said it takes more courage to stand back there and throw a ball knowing you're fixing to get drilled than anything I can think of in football.

I learned more from the mistakes than from the good things.

Sportsmanship to me is going out and playing as hard as you can within the rules.

Something has to happen that you can't coach.

I suppose I'm like most coaches now, standing on the sideline hoping somebody asks them a question.

If their IQ's where five points lower they'd be geraniums.

Integrity makes my job easier. It's deception and dishonesty that requires so much diligent effort.

He died right after he retired, and seeing that made me feel more conscious of a man needing a motive to live. If I ever got out of coaching, I would have to get a job somewhere, or I'm afraid I'd wilt on the vine, too.

Somehow, I went from being too young, to being too old. Somewhere in there I must have been just right.

I learned a long time ago that you don't have to go around using bad language and trying to hurt people to show how macho you are. That stuff won't get you anywhere, it just shows lack of vocabulary and character.

I’m praying for a misdemeanor

There's only about 6 inches that turns that halo into a noose.

If short hair and good manners won football games, Army and Navy would play for the national championship every year.

After you retire, there's only one big event left....and I ain't ready for that.

The greatest mistake is to continue to practice a mistake.

I am not happy with moral victories. Those things are forgotten.

Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.

Discipline to me is sacrifice; it's willingness to give up something you want to do, so you can better yourself.

If somebody mistreats you, treat’em good. That kills’em.