Word: bryants
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What fascinates Bryant about winning football games is not diagramming plays or deciding when to kick a field goal or gamble for a first down, but the challenge of melding 95 very young men into a whole, making each man's vision of himself interdependent with those of his teammates. For all its excesses-and football has more than its share of faults-the sport can be, at its best, a social compact of a high order. Creating this bond is what Bear Bryant excels at, and for this he draws on insights and instincts he has developed over...
...goal is becoming the best at something, even if it is a game. "I'm just a plow-hand from Arkansas," Bryant insists, "but I have learned over the years how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm down others, until finally they've got one heartbeat, together, a team...
...players, creating loyalties that have reached beyond a game and into the fabric of a region's culture, is a simple matter of taking care not to act like the biggest animal in the forest. "There's just three things I ever say," sums up Bear Bryant, when he is pushed to explain his philosophy of coaching. "If anything goes bad, then I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games...
This season's Alabama team, picked No. 1 in most early-season polls after a convincing 26-3 win over Georgia Tech, last week beat the University of Mississippi 59-35 and seems certain to continue Bryant's inexorable march into the record books. With eight veteran defensive starters on the squad, including four preseason All-Americas, Alabama boasts a swarming, solid defense. But nine starting players on the offensive unit graduated last year, and the team's Wishbone is being rebuilt. Says Alabama Assistant Athletic Director Charlie Thornton: "Last year the defense was green...
...Bryant's ability to shape successful teams from the constantly changing lineups has made him a one-man institution of higher learning for football: 42 of his former assistants and players have become head football coaches in the colleges and pros, among them the Houston Oilers' Bum Phillips, L.S.U.'s Paul Dietzel, the Washington Redskins' Jack Pardee, the New York Giants' Ray Perkins and the University of Pittsburgh's Jackie Sherrill. More than 60 former Bryant players have gone on to the pros (including five last year alone), among them former Jets Quarterback...