Football's Supercoach

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The key to building that trust between coaches and 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 for you. I can do that better than anybody. That —and I do know a little something about winning. "

—By B.J. Phillips. Reported by Peter Ainslie/Tuscaloosa