If you would have told me when I was 24 years old, right before I went with Coach Carroll to USC, you're going to get to be the offensive coordinator for Pete Carroll and then offensive coordinator for Nick Saban, arguably maybe the two best coaches in all of football by the time you're 40 years old, I would have said, 'Where do I sign up?'
I know I get a lot of grief about some of the things I've said about Coach Saban, but working under him was like going back to school and getting another degree.
I always try to find better ways to do things. Whether it's a game plan, a practice, a meeting, an interview, whatever it is. I'm going to find a way to find a way to analyze it and find a better way to do it. That's my mindset. I've never been satisfied with anything. That's just my mindset. I'm always trying to find a better way to do things.
You don't win championships by having the cheapest budget.
I was a graduate assistant at Colorado State, and I think we got $550 a month.
To be able to go through what I've gone through and still be fortunate before the age of 40 to still be here to be offensive coordinator with Coach Saban at Alabama, you take some time to reflect on that.
You know what I didn't realize at the time is a really good blessing, is that I was a really crappy player.
If I'm cussing at you, swearing at you, calling you demeaning names, are you really thinking about that last play? Am I really helping you get better? Or am I just making myself feel good by demeaning you? I've really never understood it.
Any time that you get big titles or head jobs at a young age, there's going to be that factor. 'He didn't pay his dues.'
Any experience you have, there are good parts of it and bad parts, and you have to learn from the bad parts and the mistakes that you've made.
Coach Saban and I have a great relationship, regardless of what people may think.
I don't care about what people think about me that don't know me. But the one thing that bothers me of all the places is the general perception was that I was a failure at USC as a head coach.
Coaching was always intriguing to me as a kid. Watching 'Monday Night Football' with my dad and hearing him talk through the game management and watching the Tom Landrys and Don Shulas on the sideline was more intriguing to me than watching Troy Aikman or Dan Marino throw the ball.
When you're a sports figure and people dislike you, they're going to look for the negatives.
I needed Nick Saban more than I needed Pete Carroll.
At Tennessee, I said I can't wait to beat Florida in the Swamp and sing 'Rocky Top' all night long. The thing at Tennessee I felt was that there needed to be energy in the program immediately. Two of the last three years there, they were 5-7. Urban Meyer and Nick Saban were at all-time highs. I felt like the fan base and players needed confidence.
Toughness isn't that you've got to fight with the guy after the play or punch him because he punched you. That's not tough. That's dumb.
Everything we own really belongs to God, we are just renting it, and when we die those things are going to become somebody else's possessions.
My phone was not ringing very much at the time after USC, and that was a very humbling experience after being let go there and to go through that process. You start calling a lot of people that don't call you back all of a sudden, and you realize things about people.
Once you start rooting against somebody, you're always going to look for the negative in everything they do.
