Lou Holtz Quotes

I like to think I set aspirational but reasonable goals and encourage my team to achieve them.

When you look at myself, I'm a coach, and that's what it's all about. When you're a player, you get criticized, and when you're a coach, you get criticized even more because it's about wins and losses.

To say that the captain makes the team lose or win is not correct.

I have to put people in the right spot so that if they execute, we win.

Anytime you're playing with a team that's losing, the main guy is going to take a lot of the heat.

The most important thing is that you can make tough decisions, discipline people when you need to, but also create a spirit to get the ultimate thing you're aiming for, which is winning enough games.

Winning begins with culture and character matters.

People need to know their role to produce performances and results.

I'm not afraid to coach guys. But I am going to coach them to win, and I am going to hold them to a high standard.

I want to help my team win, and this is a winning organization, so there's no added pressure.

People say I'm a natural leader, but I just go out there and do my job and do whatever it takes to win; that's what comes with being a leader, those are the sort of things I've done as I've tried to grow into a leader and I'm just going to continue to do them.

You don't go into coaching if you're not willing to step into that moment and go, 'OK, this is what it's going to take, and this is why you do it.' Everything hinges on winning and losing, right?

We're a pretty strong bunch, and we have pretty lofty goals. For us, the manager is very important in a lot of ways, but also, we have a job to do, and that's to go out and win.

I had great football players. To be quite truthful, my great football players, the ones who wanted the ball at the end of the games, they weren't focused on money. They want to do something great. They want to go to Pro Bowls. They want to win Super Bowls. Those are the people that succeed in sports - or in business.

'Get up and hit a home run,' has never been a part of the usable technique of any manager.

I know that it is a huge responsibility to be the captain, the No. 10, but I like it. I like the responsibility, the pressure, and I like playing football.

The manager picks the team and the team has got to go out and do its best.

I know my role on this team, and I'm expected to prepare and to perform every week and play well. I relish that opportunity - to be somebody the guys can count on week in and week out, to play really well. That's what really motivates me: to make my coaches proud, my teammates proud, and the fans proud.

My job is not to make decisions but to set stretch objectives and help our managers work out how to reach them.

You look at the quality players and look at the leadership we had, and it's easy to understand why we won.

When you step on the field, you want to be a starter. You want to be the person everybody looks to and says, 'If we need a play to be made, let's go to him.'

My toughest job every day is maintaining intensity with myself and with my staff.

You can't win unless you have good people with great attitude. They are the ones who won the games. I didn't win any games. You never saw a coach make a tackle anywhere. My philosophy was to get the best players and then try to do something new with them.

In some ways, I admire the principle of a manager who is determined that his team must play their own game.

Guy Lewis was all about efficiency. He was a great motivator. He got real talent and taught his players how he wanted them to play: hard and aggressive!