With the college football playoffs beginning today, I felt it was a great time to look back at some of the best leadership quotes. The following are 42 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Tua Tagovailoa, Urban Meyer, And Others:
ESPN College Gameday – December 1st, Championship Weekend
- “Adversity is sometimes internal.. Are you being the best version of yourself.” – Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban
- No Weaknesses – “You’re going to have to play well in every phase of the game.” – Saban
- Consistency – “Just to keep doing what you’re doing. Take care of the things you can control. We’ve got a formula for excellence we believe in. We execute that we’ll be just fine.” – Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney
- Play To Your Strengths – “It’s who can do what they do best and that’s what championship football is all about.” – Swinney
- Competition – “When you go toe-to-toe with a team as good as them you realize you have a pretty good team.” – Kirby Smart on what he learned playing Alabama last year
- Evaluation – “We’ve seen his body of work but that body of work is explosive.” – Smart on Tua Tagovailoa
- Leveraging Momentum – “The team that handles the momentum swings the best.” – Smart on who will win the game
- “There is a respect there that is almost uncommon. My father knows best.” – Saban on the relationship between Tua and his father
- “I hope I represent a sense of humility but also family.” – Tua
- “Football is third in Tua’s life. Faith and family come first with Tua.” – Tom Renaldi on Tua
- “Today is about the Big 12 Championship. The rest will fall as it needs to fall after this.” – Oklahoma Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley
- Next Game – “It’s not a revenge game. It’s the next game.” – Georgia All-American defensive back DeAndre Baker
- Precision – “The better the teams you play, the more precise you need to be. You can’t afford to make mistakes.” – Saban
FS1 – November 24th
- Preparation – “Get ’em fresh. Get ’em prepared. Let the dog eat.” – Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer
- “Anger is a powerful motivator… Solving your football problems with aggression. That’s not a bad thing.” – Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh
- Goals – “Our goal around here is to win the next game.” – Harbaugh
- Under Authority – “You work at the pleasure of the athletic director.” – Harbaugh
ESPN College Gameday – November 24th
- Priorities – “This game isn’t about this week. This game is about this year.” – Meyer on the game with Michigan
- Respect – “How do you respect a rivalry? How do you respect a rival? You work so hard on it.” – Meyer
- Execution – “It still comes down to execution and that’s why you play the game.” – Saban
ESPN College Gameday – November 10th
- Alignment – “Get everybody on the same page… the same thing we do every week. We try not to have negative plays.” – Swinney
- Focus – “Focus on the job. Don’t worry about the stuff you don’t control. Just stay focused on the things you do control.” – Swinney
ESPN College Gameday – November 3rd
- Smart Coaches Must Know How to Judge Preparedness – “Players’ focus and intensity. How they practice. How they are in meetings.” – Nick Saban on how he judges his team’s preparedness
- Smart Leaders Respect Their Elders – “It was my dad. I didn’t really have a choice to go anywhere else. It’s really a cultural thing to have your parents make those decisions for you… My parents are my heart. Whatever they want, I want.” – Tua on why he chose to play for Alabama
- Smart Leaders Respect Their Opponents – “They’re a really good defense.” – Tua
- Great Teams Desire And Welcome Competition – “We’re always looking for a challenge as a team.” – Tua
- “The dynamic that Tua adds to our offense is just so unpredictable.” – Alabama’s Damien Harris
- Great Coaches Must Embrace Great Expectations – “The expectation for me is to be a legitimate contender for national championships.” – Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly
- Great Organizations Do Things Differently Than Their Competitors – “Nick Saban is an honorable football coach. Their business plan is different than Notre Dame’s.” – Kelly
- “Be careful what you wish for.” – Kelly on the possibility of playing Alabama
- Great Coaches Have Great Belief – “Our football team, on one given day, can be the best team in that stadium.” – Kelly
ESPN College Gameday – October 27th
- Everything Rises And Falls On Leadership – “The success of our team is based on a lot of critical factors and quarterback play is one of those.” – Smart
- “You’re as good as your last play… If you want to keep getting praised, you need to keep performing.” – Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen
- Practice And Performance – “How you prepare and how you practice is going to be how you perform and how you play.” – Mullen
- “Teams learn how to win.” – Mullen
- Confidence Comes From Success – “The biggest thing is the confidence that has come from his success.” – Swinney on Trevor Lawrence
ESPN College Gameday – October 13th
- Perfection – “Good coaches and good players coach against perfection and play against perfection, not their opponents.” – Lee Corso
- Relevance Or Irrelevance – “You’re going to have to show me how to get on Google.” – Louisville Cardinals head coach Bobby Petrino
- “Success breeds success. The rich get richer and that’s the way college football is.” – Corso
ESPN College Gameday – September 8th
- “You’ve got to envision greatness. You got to live in vision.” – Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher
- Habits And A Process – “Once you see it, you have to work daily to create the habits and create process to be equipped to get to that goal.” – Fisher
- “You have to live in the moment. You have to be where your feet are. Play one play at a time. If we want the results we want at the end of the game, we have to play one play at a time, one situation at a time.” – Fisher
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