Lou Holtz

I’ve never known anybody to achieve anything without overcoming adversity.

All winning teams are goal oriented. Teams like these win consistently because everyone connected with them concentrates on specific objectives. They go about their business with blinders on; nothing will distract them from achieving their aims.

Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.

Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

Teamwork is the foundation of success. The three universal questions that an individual asks of his coach, player, employee, employer are: Can I trust you? Are you committed to excellence? And, do you care about me?

Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.

When I die, and people realize that I will not be resurrected in three days, they will forget me. That is the way it should be.

Give your players something they can physically do - don't ask them to do something they can't do.

My wife doesn't even want to spend 2 hours with me.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

When the bank asks me about my assets, I include my friendship with Regis Philbin.

I was born January 6, 1937, eight years after Wall Street crashed and two years before John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the plight of a family during the Great Depression.

I do think coaches need to get away from the game more, though. It's good for them.

No matter what happens on the field, getting an education makes you a winner.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.

See, winners embrace hard work.

Don't be a spectator, don't let life pass you by.

We can all be successful and make money, but when we die, that ends. But when you are significant is when you help other people be successful. That lasts many a lifetime.

It’s not the load that breaks you down it’s the way you carry it

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It's the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

If youre bored with life you dont get up every morning with a burning desire to do things you dont have enough goals.

If you’re bored with life, you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don’t have enough goals.

What you are capable of achieving is determined by your talent and ability. What you attempt to do is determined by your motivation. How well you do something is determined by your attitude.

I have no desire at all to become the winningest coach at Notre Dame. The record belongs to Knute Rockne or some other coach in the future.

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

How do you know what it's like to be stupid if you've never been smart?

For victory in life, we've got to keep focused on the goal, and the goal is Heaven.

I truly believe the things Notre Dame stands for.

God answers prayers, but he doesn't always answer it your way.

My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961.

After winning, most teams become individuals; most teams become complacent.

Football coaches don't have real problems.

Don't run if you can walk. Don't walk if you can stand. Don't stand if you can sit. Don't sit if you can lie down.

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career

The way you motivate a football team is to eliminate the unmotivated ones.

I'll assure you this: I will have nothing to do with politics.

You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose.

If you're bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don't have enough goals.

I feel that God wants me to coach; otherwise, he wouldn't have put the desire in me.

You might not be able to outthink, outmarket or outspend your competition, but you can outwork them.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

I'm an old man, and all my life I've said that Notre Dame should remain independent because it's a national school.

You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

At home I have a copy of the April 21, 1986, issue of 'Sports Illustrated.' I'm on the cover with the blurb, 'Can Lou Do It?' I'd just arrived at Notre Dame, and with spring football underway, I was the focal point of that week's coverage.

Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them.

Sacrifice, discipline and prayer are essential. We gain strength through God's word. We receive grace from the sacrament. And when we fumble due to sin - and it's gonna happen - confession puts us back on the field.

I look like I have beriberi and scurvy.

As a coach, one thing that used to frustrate me was one player would make a bad decision, and that's all you would read about in the papers all over the country. We have so many athletes do so many wonderful things for other people, and you never read about it.

I believe your attitude is the most important choice you can make.

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

My first assistant-coaching job in football was at William & Mary in 1961. The pay wasn't much, so to get $300 more per year, I agreed to coach the golf team. I didn't even know how to keep score, and really, my main job was not to wreck the van on the way to tournaments.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that's all I ever was associated with.

We have an obligation to help people that cannot help themselves. The mentally retarded, the physically retarded, et cetera.

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

I believe - we all pay taxes. I'm happy to pay it, but I hate to have it abused, money wasted, no accountability. That's going to bother you.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.

I do know this: God does answer your prayers, but it's not always in the way you expect. God knows what's best for us, though, so there's no need to worry when things don't go how we originally wanted them to go.

Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired.

Momentum is whatever your attitude determines it to be.

When I work a game as an analyst, all I do is look at the game like a coach.

The University of Notre Dame does not redshirt, and I endorse that policy completely. I am very much in favor of redshirting, but not at Notre Dame. But there's no doubt about it. It puts us at a huge disadvantage.

I don't drink water, haven't drank water in 40 years.

I was raised in a religious environment, and my wife is one of the more religious people that I have ever known.

A lifetime contract for a coach means if you're ahead in the third quarter and moving the ball, they can't fire you.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

Everybody is looking for instant success, but it doesn't work that way. You build a successful life one day at a time.

When people need love and understanding and support the most is when they deserve it the least.

On this team, we're all united in a common goal: to keep my job.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask question.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today.

I think that everybody needs four things in life. Everybody needs something to do regardless of age. Everybody needs someone to love. Everybody needs something to hope for, and, of course, everybody needs someone to believe in.

Notre Dame is the one school that has a national recruiting base, from Florida to Texas to California.

I don't think there's been anything in the game of football in my lifetime that has changed college football more than redshirting.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

I'm proud to be part of the Dr. Pepper Scholarship Giveaway. It's a great program that gives me the chance to brighten the day for some lucky college students with free tuition.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

To win a national championship, you've got to be a little lucky.

God looks after children, animals and idiots.

If you continually ask yourself, 'What's important now'' you won't waste time on the trivial.

I believe in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

You don't go to Notre Dame to learn something; you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

In football, it's the job of the player to play, the coach to coach, the official to officiate. Each guy is charged with upholding his end, nothing more. In golf, the player, coach and official are rolled into one, and they overlap completely. Golf really is the best microcosm of life - or at least the way life should be.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

In golf, the player, coach and official are rolled into one, and they overlap completely. Golf really is the best microcosm of life - or at least the way life should be.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.

If you're bored with life - you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals.

I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it.

Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they're making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that's the difference.

I believe that having a spiritual life is so important in everybody's life.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game whether you are a winner or a loser.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

Life is 10 percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.

You aren't going to find anybody that's going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who's been successful at another college program, they're going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

All an agent is going to do is buy things for a player, damage his eligibility, and make the player dependent on them.

No one has ever drowned in sweat.