Jim Zorn Quotes (11 Quotes)

When it started here, we wanted to create a tradition. We had a bunch of enthusiastic athletes, but we never quite built a sustained thing. We had some success in the 1980s, but it went sour again. For the last few years we've had a team that was expected to win.

There were some years, in the dark ages here, when there was nothing going on. Now, to have this turnaround, and be solid with it. I mean there's not a guy in here that doesn't think we've earned it and that's a tremendous feeling.

He would come in and tell us what he thought we should be doing, and that what we were doing was all wrong.

I'm totally numb. It really is a shock. I talked to him while he was on the recruiting trail with Texas Tech, and there were no obvious (physical) signs of anything going wrong.

He came under the authority of others, and that's very difficult for a star player to have that kind of humility. Matt did that. I think as a Christian, he knows how to come under the submission of the Lord, and that's something that translates to life.

He had his quirks. We never had water. There was no water on the sidelines during practice in Cheney, Washington. It would be 100 degrees in Cheney and we would be paying ball boys to get us some ice cubes. They used to wrap them in towels you used to dry your face and you'd be chewing on ice.

I just talked to him while he was on the recruiting trail for Texas Tech, and obviously there were no signs of anything that would go wrong. We just lost a really good friend. He's got a great family in Rhonda, Sterling and Aaron. Rhonda is a very strong woman, and I can imagine she is handling this very well. Whatever well would mean in this case, but I know she is a strong woman.

He had so much talent he thought he could make every throw from every angle. He eventually found out that it takes a little more discipline than that.

He could have lashed out or just gone in the tank or been so frustrated and demanded a trade. That's not how Matt reacted.

Matt was tremendously talented, but wild. He would come in and say, 'This is how we did it in Green Bay,' and wasn't very receptive to change.

Year in and year out he just continues to get better. This wasn't a dramatic improvement year, though it was his best from a media standpoint. They finally noticed how well he played. But he inches toward greatness all the time and he's played very well this year.