Lou Holtz Quotes

#1. 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.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#3. The key to winning is choosing to do God's will and loving others with all you've got.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#5. I think that we have opportunities all around us - sometimes we just don't recognize them.

Lou Holtz

#6. It was a great game if you don't care who won. I cared.

Lou Holtz

#7. No matter how bad someone has it, there are others who have it worse. Remembering that makes life a lot easier and allows you to take pleasure in the blessings you have been given.

Lou Holtz

#8. Remember that adversity presents us with numerous possibilities for success, if we are just willing to see them.

Lou Holtz

#9. We were at a beach one summer, and I had a bathing suit on. My wife looked at me and said: 'Boy, you are skinny, aren't you?' I said: 'Honey, I'd like to remind you that it was minor defects like this that kept me from getting a better wife.'

Lou Holtz

#10. Never tell your problems to any1 ... 20% donot care and 80% are glad to have them ...

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#12. Everybody needs four things in life: Something to do, someone to love, someone to believe in and something to hope for.

Lou Holtz

#13. 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.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#15. No one has ever drowned in sweat.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#17. First and foremost I am a teacher, I care. Caring is helping the players to develop

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#19. So think before you complain, especially about things that require some sacrifice. Complaining is the sign of a loser.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#21. I don't play well enough to be allowed to throw my clubs.

Lou Holtz

#22. It's the extra effort after you have done your best that creates victory.

Lou Holtz

#23. If Tiger Woods had played football, he would have been a quarterback.

Lou Holtz

#24. An agent won't help you get drafted higher, won't make you win more games, and won't make you faster or stronger.

Lou Holtz

#25. Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.

Lou Holtz

#26. 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.

Lou Holtz

#27. Broadcasting is easy; you just talk until you think of something to say.

Lou Holtz

#28. Winners and losers aren't born, they are the products of how they think

Lou Holtz

#29. 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.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#32. Build your empire on the firm foundation of the fundamentals.

Lou Holtz

#33. Don't let failure get you down. Babe Ruth struck out over 1,300 times.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#35. Don't ever promise more than you can deliver, but always deliver more than you promise.

Lou Holtz

#36. Only the unprepared are overcome by pressure

Lou Holtz

#37. It's always better to face the truth, no matter how uncomfortable, than to continue coddling a lie.

Lou Holtz

#38. Football coaches don't have real problems.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#40. The price of LEADERSHIP is RESPONSIBILITY ... and part of that responsibility is to STAY POSITIVE whether you feel like it or not.

Lou Holtz

#41. We are not going to win because you have a new head coach, any more than you are going to fix a flat tire by changing the driver. We will win the minute all of us get rid of excuses as to why we can't win and stop wallowing in self-pity.

Lou Holtz

#42. Do what's right. Be on time, be polite, and be honest; remain free from drugs; and if you have any questions, get out your Bible. 2. Do your best. Mediocrity is unacceptable when you are capable of doing better. 3. Treat others as you want to be treated. Practice love and understanding.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#44. I've never seen the yellow light, umm the yellow line be wrong.

Lou Holtz

#45. Never tell your problems to anyone ... 20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them.

Lou Holtz

#46. If you've been there, no explanation is necessary. If you haven't, none is adequate.

Lou Holtz

#47. 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.

Lou Holtz

#48. The standards you establish for others must reflect the standards you set for yourself. No one will follow a hypocrite.

Lou Holtz

#49. Do what's right! Do the best you can and treat others the way you want to be treated because they will ask three questions: (1) Can I trust you? (2) Are you committed? (3) Do you care about me as a person?

Lou Holtz

#50. Ya know, Hitler was a great leader, too.

Lou Holtz

#51. One day you are drinking the wine, and they next day you are picking the grapes.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#53. 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.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#56. If you are killing time, it's not murder. It's suicide.

Lou Holtz

#57. I truly believe the things Notre Dame stands for.

Lou Holtz

#58. The answers to these questions will determine your success or failure. 1) Can people trust me to do what's right? 2) Am I committed to doing my best? 3) Do I care about other people and show it? If the answers to these questions are yes, there is no way you can fail.

Lou Holtz

#59. ESPN is a great organization to work for.

Lou Holtz

#60. 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.

Lou Holtz

#61. I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing ... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!

Lou Holtz

#62. I just have an enthusiasm for life.

Lou Holtz

#63. You've got to have great athletes to win, I don't care who the coach is. You can't win without good athletes but you can lose with them. This is where coaching makes the difference.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#68. Everyone wants to win on Saturday afternoon when the game is played. It's what you do the other six days that decides the outcome

Lou Holtz

#69. Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#71. One reason I won't compromise is because I believe honesty helps you win over the long haul. You can win a game tomorrow and lose a team. You can lose a game tomorrow and win a football team.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#73. If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#75. 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.

Lou Holtz

#76. In this world you're either growing or you're dying so get in motion and grow.

Lou Holtz

#77. I've never known anybody to achieve anything without overcoming adversity.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#79. You live up - or down - to your expectations.

Lou Holtz

#80. Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.

Lou Holtz

#81. I'm not a disciplinarian. I simply enforce other people's decisions.

Lou Holtz

#82. When all is said and done, there is usually more said than done.
[as quoted by Alfred E Neuman]

Lou Holtz

#83. What's important now? - To evaluate the past, focus on the future, and tell you what you have to do in the present

Lou Holtz

#84. Behind every successful person, stands a very successful mother-in-law.

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#86. It's good to be successful but it's great to be significant

Lou Holtz

#87. Never settle for second when first is available

Lou Holtz

#88. We are always faced with different challenges, and circumstances necessitate bringing out the greatness God puts in all of us.

Lou Holtz

#89. My athletes always follow my advice ... unless it conflicts with what that they want to do.

Lou Holtz

#90. If you don't make a total commitment to whatever you are doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking.

Lou Holtz

#91. So many times people are afraid of competition, when it should bring out the best in us. We all have talents and abilities, so why be intimidated by other people's skills?

Lou Holtz

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

Lou Holtz

#93. No, but you can see it from here.

Lou Holtz

#94. 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.

Lou Holtz

#95. If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn't make your house look any better.

Lou Holtz

#96. The only people who aren't going to be criticized are those who do absolutely nothing

Lou Holtz

#97. 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.

Lou Holtz

#98. 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.

Lou Holtz

#99. Give me a blackboard. I can stop anything on a blackboard.

Lou Holtz

#100. The freedom to do your own thing ends when you have obligations and responsibilities. If you want to fail yourself - you can - but you cannot do your own thing if you have responsibilities to team members.

Lou Holtz