Zitat des Tages von Kirby Smart:
A lot of people think our standard is to be first in the SEC, be first in the country, first in our red zone, and run defense. We really don't go by that motto. We go by, 'Be the best Alabama defense there's been.'
I felt like I was selling a product of the University of Georgia that's really special and really special to me as far as the education you can get, the development you can get, and the league we play in. That's what I've sold.
It's a lot more important to get quality young men and good student-athletes that can be successful at the University of Georgia. That's my No. 1 goal.
Every college coach I talk to won't say it on record, but everyone's thinking, 'Should I go to the league?' Because you don't have the same requirements. It's different. The hours are different.
I think, as a coach, you have to be willing to do what's best for the player. And you say what's best for the player: is it better to give him a game suspension, three-game suspension, no suspension. I think each case may be different in that.
I've seen Coach Saban over the years have to make a lot of tough decisions, and there's not one decision he doesn't make that he doesn't bounce ideas off the staff. To me, that's invaluable.
The only thing that matters with my kids are them graduating and playing well, and I try to do my dangedest to get them to play well.
I've been very fortunate to be with Coach Saban this long, learned a lot of football from him. It's been kind of the key to my personal success out of the places that I've coached.
It's always a danger when you've got a great quarterback that throws the ball well, that scrambles well. You may push him into his asset. You may force him to do what he does best. So you've got to be able to throw curveballs and stop the pass as much as stop the run.
The amount of pressure that I've put on myself as a defensive coordinator for the last 10, 11 years, I really believe there's a lot more decisions that go into that position than the head coach.
When you step out there on the field as a corner in our system, you have to be ready to play because humility is one week away.
I'm a big believer in your offensive limitations come from your quarterback.
I think the growth you get from working at a place like Alabama and with a program under Nick Saban, it helps me immensely.
I always felt like, one of the niches is if you can recruit the SEC, you can be a head coach in the SEC.
There's a lot of people who think in order to be a good head coach, you've got to be a head coach at a smaller school.
I think in order to push kids and coach kids the way we want to coach them, we've got to have their trust.
Every kid I've been around as a football player, they want their coaches to make them better as men and as players.
I don't recruit against Nick Saban. I recruit for the University of Georgia.
I might not have a conference championship or a national championship as a head coach, but I had the recruiting factor.
Our personalities are the not the same, Coach Saban and I. And I have the utmost respect for what he's done and what he's done for me and my family.
Welcome to the world we live in as coaches. You've got to figure out what you can do best and better to get these kids a chance to be successful. I think that comes through a lot of things - confidence, improvement, recruiting.
To be honest, it makes you a lot better coach when your boss is in the meeting room. You're a lot more driven every day.
At the end of the day, if you're not beating the teams on the road recruiting that you have to beat on the field, then you're probably not going to win many championships.
I don't believe in the coach-in-waiting thing. I don't think that works.
Every day I pull into that parking spot that says 'Head Football Coach,' I get out of my car and pinch myself sometimes, just to make sure it's real, sort of like, 'Is this really happening?'
It's very important that we don't make the same mistakes twice. That's a big part of improvement.
Change is uncomfortable.
I think you never leave what you learn.
When you talk about the SEC, you never get a chance to rest.
It's very rare that Georgia and Alabama are the only two teams recruiting a kid.