LaVell Edwards Quotes on Potential (3 Quotes)

We tend to look at successful athletes and make them almost bigger than life.... I have seen many young men who have achieved greatness. I have also seen those who have come up a little short of their potential. I do know that those who succeed have been able to ... recognize within themselves the potential to do something well and then work hard to prepare themselves for that eventual opportunity. Others wait for the opportunity to come and then start to work, thus coming up a little short.

Potential does not always ensure success. ... The greatest players have not always been the most endowed. In athletics, we often hear the phrase, 'He has the will to win.' I think this is wrong.... We can have the greatest will to do well. But unless we have prepared, it is of little use. Really, it should be the 'will to prepare.' Those who succeed have this will, whether it be in athletics, whether it be in school, whether it be in their chosen vocation, whether it be on a mission, or in almost any other phase of their life.

I feel that the progress I have made as a coach, as well as a person, is a direct result of the growth that I have made through my Church callings. I had the opportunity to serve as a bishop in a campus ward while I was still an assistant coach. When I was appointed head football coach in 1972, I decided to approach my role as a coach much the same as I did as a bishop, delegating responsibility to my assistants, putting responsibility on the players for self-improvement in all aspects of their lives, and using personal interviews with players to try to give positive reinforcement and encouragement so that they might do their very best and reach their full potential, both on and off the field.