BOBBY BOWDEN

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

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.

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

He who gets the best players usually wins.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Don't go to the grave with life unused.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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