Normally, during the course of your coaching career, there is a quote or two (and if you're lucky, even more) that you hear from the head coach you're working with that sticks with you well after you move on. Those quotes have a habit of shaping you, your approach, or your philosophy in some way, shape or form well after you move on into a new role.
Oklahoma's Bob Stoops has had the unique opportunity to learn under some of the best coaches in the game, including Hayden Fry, Barry Alvarez, Kirk Ferentz, Bill Snyder, and Steve Spurrier. But, according to Dawg Nation, it was a conversation with Lou Holtz while Stoops was an assistant at Oklahoma that has stuck with him ever since.
In that conversation, Holtz (who has no shortage of outstanding quotes), shared the following wisdom, and it's something that Stoops shares with his team annually each year.
“He said something that I tell my players every year: As coach Holtz said, there’s three ways to make your team better. One is develop what’s there. Two is to recruit. And three is to eliminate. And that third one struck me, because there’s people that bring you down, or there can be, especially when programs aren’t doing so well. I’ve always remembered that.”
Read more from thoughts from Stoops here, including why his time working under Spurrier helped him grow enough to feel he was ready to take on a head coaching job.