PHILOSOPHY,MOTIVATION,AND I{ANAGEMENT 189
About Goaches
In evaluating coaches,there arc cedain things
that I've tried to look at when hiring them or k€€p-
ing them. First, can he liv€ without it? I'm only
rcpeating what Coach Bryant and some olher
people have said, but ifyou can live without coach-
ing, then I don't know whether coaching is for
The lr'C.4A Nerus had an afti cle once about this
gr€at musician that Bobby Knight invited rn to
talk to his team. This world-renowned cellisi,
named Janos Stark€r, talhed to Bobby's group and
explained how he didn't want to play a cello,but
his mom stuck the ifttrurnent in his hands, and
he was forc€d to l€arn bow to play it. Then all of
a sudden, he rcalized that he didn't want to go
onFday wrrhourrhinking.doing.makrngmusic.
He said, "Anyone who cango thrcush a day $.ith-
out wanting to make music or hear music is not
supposedto be a musician."Starker becamea tru€
prof€ssional not a dilettante, brt a man wbo
committed his life to music.
I don't think any of us who\e been coaching
very long ever gets up in the moring without
thinking something about football. I don't know
ifthere bas been a dayin my life ofcoachingthat
I haven't thought about football or my team, and
I try to evaluate my coachesin the same way.
I thinkcoaches have to be willingto make any
sacrilice to win, except th€ir families.You'vegot
to be willing to make any sacrifrce,and you\e
got to have self-discipiine.Youhave to be in there
wben you're supposedto be, and you have to do
the things you arc supposedto do becauseyou
can't lbol kids. You can't talk to kids about being
disciplinedand n.r be drsciplined yourself.
About Developing Young
Players
Onp of the greatcst misrakp. lvc pvpr hpa.lin
coachingwasmade oneyear when we had a gr-eat
freshman kid from upstate New York who was a
6 4,21s-pound lullback that ran (in those days it
was a good speed)a 100-yard dash in 10.0. He
camedowntoourplace, and we couldhardlywait
to see what he could do. He was a pretty good
runner, but not a great one.
So du ng the following spdng practice, we
matched th€ kid up against Dave Robinson,who
- -1987 Prccee.lines.C@ch Patemo is hedd con.h at Penn State Uhiueait\.
playedwiththe Green Bay Packersfor years and
was as good a football player as we ever had. We
can'twaitto seehow tough the young kid was, so
w€ put him in there against Robinsonfor a dive
drill. The point was we didn't have any suy on
the football tearn there wasn't a football player
on our team who, in thai situation, Robinson
couldn't pickup and throw on his back.Robinson
was that good. The lirst time the kid comes,
Robinsontakes and throws hirn on his back. The
next time, same thing.
The kidwas so ftustratod. And you knowwhat
happened?That kid nevcr showedup to practice
again. All we did was take a great prospectwho
wasn't ready for that kind of challenge and de-
stroyed him. Ifwe had led him along, given him
some success,we may have been able to develop
him into a good football player.
I'm not in a hurry to play young ptayers. My
staffknows how I feel. A lot oftimes kids think
they're ready to play.I'd mther be two weekslate
in playins a kid than one day too soon.Becaffe
until a kid is comfortable,until he has had an
opportunity to feel good about himseu, until he
really knows he's ready to go, until th€ whole
"quad say.-to themsel!Fs-Wlcn arc you g^ing
to play that kid?' I'm notsure I'd like to playhim.
Alter they have some success,and oncethey be-
licve in IhAm.el!e".rhcn rhp) ran b.cnme$in-
About Winning
People often talk to me aboul deveJoping individu-
als into winners. I alvays wanted to be amund
Paul Bryant becauseI thought he did as good a
job as anybody in creating a winning mentality
around his players. We played a couple of his
teams,goingback to the 1959Liberty Bo*'1,when
we had a great team and he $'as in his filst year
at Alabama. We struggled like dogs to beat him
and sot lucky to score on a screen pass in a 7-0
football eame.We outmanned them. but they werc
The only djference bet\,!een*inncrs and los-
ers is that the winners b€lieve in ihcmsolvos.
They've had success.They haven't bcen knocked
around. Things have tumed out well for thcm up
to a point, and they keep thinking it's going to
continue to tuln out well for thern. They expect
things to happenbccaus€ihey have had that success.
I9O FOOTBALL COACHING STRATEGIES
Fifty-Plus Yeansof Goaching Football
EDDIE ROBINSON
One ofthe best things that's happenedto me in
my liletime is that I've heard the best coaches
who have eve|walked. From 1941, when I firut
wcnt to coachingschool,I\e head them all. You
name them, and I havc a pieceof cvcry one.And
whan I lcave here today,I'11have a pioceofthose
who will taik today
At Gramblins, we don't do a wholc lotofthings
thatotherp€opl€ haven't done.We comehereand
we get the plays. I've had your plays; you know
that. I got tbe Wing-T from (Forest)Evash€vski,
from (Dave)Nelson.I picked theirbrains. This is
what it's all about.You can't comehere and walk
in the halls and hang a.ound Uke I see some of
the guys. When someonegets up here to speak,
you need to be in here to hear hjm.
For example,back in the '50s, we were tryins
to change plays at the line. I'd gone all over the
country trying to talk with peoplewho changed
something at the line. At one clinic, an unknown
speakercame up after Frank Leahy had spoken,
and while the other coacheswere walkins out,
thi. gr.rl"aid ereryrhinBI wantcdro knos.
Why Goaching?
To paraphrasethe lateAlonzo Stagg:"Thecoach-
ing professionis the most rewarding professron
in the world, and no man is too good to coachin
Amedca."It's a ereat pmfession,and this is what
you need to tell th€ young coaches.Work hard,
and promotions will come.You can't work at one
j ob, looking to go to anotherj ob.You'v€ got to have
I a$ee with coachStagg wholeheartedly,and
I have for some49 to 50 years, to the extent that
at this point, ifl had a decisionto mak€ about a
vocation,I wouldn't have to take a secondguess
it would slill be the coachingprofession, because
I know that football builds character in young
When I look at you,I seepeop)ewho can make
winners out oflosers. I see peoplewho can be a
plus to our society.I see peoplewho are looking
at the young man inst€ad of the record. You've
sot to look at both you don't have a record,you
set flled-but you'rc d€alins with America's most
prcciouspossession. Thesegreat men who I heard
kind of shaped my philosophy about thinss like
ihis, that football builds chamcter inyouns men.
Football Lessons
Coachesinthe past have saidthis aboutfbotball,
and I beli€ve it, too. Football makes young men
strone onough to know when th€y're weak and
brave enough to face themseive! when they'rc
afraid. Football will teach them to be proud and
unb€ndins in honest failure, but humble and
g€rtle in success.Football teaches m€n not to
substitule words for action, nor to seek the path
ofcomfort, butto face the streBsand spur of diffi-
culty and challenge.
Football will teach them to stand up in the
stor'rnbut to have compas8ionon those who fall;
to have a heaft that is clean, a goal that h high.
It will teach them to laugh, yet never forget to
weep; to reach into the future, yet never neglect
the past; to be serious, yet never take youmeif
too seriously; to be modest so that you will re
member the simplicity of true greatness the
open-mindednessof tlue wisdom.
We\e got som€$eat minds here.The players
have sreat minds, too. At Gramblins, we hav€ a
man who's our leader,our prcsident;I've had th€
distinct pleasureofcoachingtwo players who are
now colles€presidents.Grcat minds. That's why
I want you to leave here with a commitment about
this game and the young men you coach.
A boy can't come to my office and t€ll me,
"Coach, I don't want to waste your time-" He
doesn'twastemy time.It's ourtime.I don'tflunk
anybody,and I'm not running the football, and
I'm not catchineit. So,theseathlet€s are the most
impoftant peoplein the world to me.
It's all right fora manto be a man,butyouput
him down there in a one-on-onesituation, and
this suy will find out howsoodhe is,just lik€ the
 PHILOSOPIIY. MOTIVATION, AND MANAGEMENT 191

other one will. I could be wrong, but I think fbot-

ball and athletics in g€neral have made our na-
tion the best fightins forc€ in the world
I don't like people who substitute wor& for
actions. When a team whips us, and the boys are
in the dressing room, I walk in, and I'm asked,
"\ hat about the game?" I say, "We shottld have
stay€d at home. They outplayed us, they out-
blockedus, and they outcoachedus."

Taking Responsibility
I learned so much from football. I leamed how to
win from football.I leamed how tolosefromfoot-
ball, to lose without offering excuses.
No assistant coach of mine can say Coach
RobinBonsaid that a boy lost a game, or that an
assistant coachiost it. If anybody loses a game,
Eddie Robinsondoes.
At one t;me early in my coaching carcea when
I d get up in the morning, I'd say, "Eddie, you're a
hell of a coach, boy, youre coming on," but that
didn t last lons. Now, you've got offensive coordi-
nators, coacheswith d€fen8es.Back then, I was
coachingit all.
For all these years, I've ridden on the shoul-
dels of the athletes, the football playel8, and the
coaches.Whatever we have achieved, or will
achi€ve, then the athletes and coacbesshould
share.l don't believethat I could bave done that
by myself.
The football players and the football coacbes
have been good to me. I don't have enough time
at my age to pay them back. It's so important to
ri w a c n m a r h i n d h q .L
I've never walked ollliom an auto$aph. I don't
allow it. We had a crcwd of55,000 againstTemple
in Tokyo. When the game was over, we were on
the bus, getting ready to leave, and were about
an hour late. The guys werc all mad, saying Doug
Williams was not here. He finally came about 10
minutes latea and he steppedon the bus, and he
told them, "I don't make the rules; Coachmakes
the rules, and he said,'don'tcomeout ofthe dress-
ing room if you'r€ not going to sign them."'
Ask anybody on our team. I don't want to see
any kid mnning to somebody asking for an auto-
graph and not get one. Stop and sign it. This is
what you need to do.
Coaching School and the AFCA
I went to my fiIst coachingschoolat Northwest-
ern. I don't ihink anybody's old €nough to know
about tl,e Chicago Triblze all-star game, where
I think they bought glassesfor the underpnvr-
leg€d.At that time, they held the game at North-
western. The all-stars played the professional
champions.In 1941,I went to this coachingschool,
after I'd been hired at Gramblins.
The coacheswho werc there--you've probably
read about them-were Fdtz Crisler, Carl
Snavely, and Ll.nn Waldorf. I stil remember some
ofthe things that were said durins that coaching
clinic. What Fritz Cdsler said was tme then and
still is true. The essenceof offense is blockins.
On defense,it's tackling.
Most ofyou\e r€ad abourcoachCrisle. He was
a disciplinarian- He\{,astough, with adeep, com-
mandins voice, and he was a man that was re-
spc.red w}|en he ralked,)nu c^uld hear a pin
drop in the stadium.
CoachWaldorf was one ofthose guys you could
get closeto. He'd tell you in his own gentle way
that one method of coaching doesn't go lor all
ballplayers. They have individual di{ferences.And
you can gjve a guy with more ability more things
to do.
Crying, Dreaming, and Doing
I'm a crier. I cry over good things. When I was a
boy,I didn't have a great deal.I remember when
they played the first Sugar Bowl same,I was sit-
192 FOOTBAI,LCOACHINGSTRATEGIES
ting on the steps of an Italian store, listening to
it on a borrowedIadio. I list€nedto the RoseBowl.
Like Maftin Luther Kins, I had a dream. I
wanted to coach.And when Grambling played a
game in Pasadenain th€ RoseBovrl, I walked on
the fieid and I cried, b€causeI couldn't realize
when I sat there list€ning rnany long years ago
that I would ever coacba game therc.
When we got the fimt chance to put 76,000
peoplein the Srear BowJ,I cried again, because
I rcalizedthat only in Amedca €ould this happen
lo mF.Tll rpll ).1 unething: I can sell American-
ism.I believeEddie Robinsonis as soodan Ameri-
can as any other American. And I'11always want
to be the best coach,or among the best.
W]len I uas inrroducFd,I had all thosc nice
things sajd about me. But something thatwasn't
said was thatnobodyin my family before me frn-
ished elementary school.Ther€'sa price you havo
to pay.
What you young coacheshave to undeNtand
is that I wasn't as fortunate as you are. I live in
Gmmbling. In ord€r to getto Grambling, you got
to be goins to Grambling. You can't so through
Grambling to get to any other place. From 1941
to 1955,I didn'tknow anythine abouttheAm€ri-
can Football CoachosAs$ociation. But on the av-
pragc.T wenr In
^nc ru three coachingclrni(" a
year since 1941.
In 1956,I wenl to my fiISt AI'CA convention.
When I sot therc and walked through thal door
and saw the people tbere and all tho famous
names on theirbadges,I b€camea badgefreak. I
was looking at all the coachesthat I had read
about, heard about thatt this guy, tbere's that
guy. I was just so excited about being there for
the fiIst 1ime.
Meeting Coach Stagg
At rny litst AFCA meeting, Ray Eht, the
presid.ent,tar introducinE somepeopLe.
Whenhe sqid "AlonzoStags," it wasjust
like puttitE on an. alarm. Euerybod.y
uanted to shahehis hand.
I had rea.l about coachStass, an lhou
he Drote to his 11 month old son, an.dif
he uoukl die, hou he uanted his son to
treat his mother,and. uhat kind of nan
h.eu)an.tpdhin Lobe.I read.about aLLlhe
chanEeshe had madL in thegame.He uas
just about a football so(lto me.
Just lihe that, euetybodr bas comins up
to shahehands uith codchStase. The line
citcled. all the uar around the room. It
took ne about 30 minutes to uo* n! ua!
up there.Final\, dfter readins about this
Bur lbr so lone,I uas soine to neet hjn. I
could.n'timaeine uhat he would Loohlihe
up close fisured he had three ears, tua
noses.Idon't hnow ulnt he had, to be tlLe
kind.olsur heuas. So,t'J the tine Igot to
him, and et..n(led my hand, I uanted to
eet (t sood laoh at ILim possiblr Lookins
for tl&t thid. ea. or somethinEthat ma.le
him superior The gux behind me finaryy
sai<l,"Hell, Etldie, hiss him antl mouc on."
Developing a System
When I was leaving the coaches'school,I waited
until ove.ybodyhad left, and Iwent in the locker
room where coach Waldorf was. And when I
walkedin, he hadhisbackto me. H€ took a quick
glance and said,"Yes,Eddi€, what do you want?'
W}en Ihih gentlemsncdlled my namn, rl re-
ally nailed me down. With all these people,how
doesthis man know my name?Calling my name
made me know right thercthat I necdedto knoN
the fi rst name of my ballplayers. When your n ame
i s called, when a man com€sup to yotl in a strange
t,'u n and ca)1.your namc.it means snm.rhrng.
AndI.aid tohim. CoachWald^rf.whal rbJ our
adviceto a young coachon his firstjob?"He said,
'As a new coach,you need to get a system."
I said, 'A system?"He said, "Yes,you need to
get a system.
"Weli," I told him, "I iust got through playins
lborball.and T don reallj have a system.'
' can handle that. Wlat do
He said, 'Well, wo
you play, what is your offense?"and I told him it
was doublewing and singlewing, and the defens€
was a 6-2.
So he said, "Eddie, you can take the plays that
youusedin college,andthen whateveryou heard
here relatod to whatyou play,and tak€ that back
to Grambling- Get it mineo$aphed and give it
to your players. And tell them this is yor1l sys-
tem, and make them play it." Tho train couldn't
gei to Grambling fast enough for me to get this
systemhome, and in tbc flrstmeeting I had with
my players, I told them this js our system and
this is what you have to play.