WISE WORDS FROM COACH WOODEN

"Your strength as an individual depends on how you respond to both criticism and praise.  If you let either one have any special effect on you, it's going to hurt us...You have little control over what criticism or praise outsiders send your way.  Take it all with a grain of salt.  Let your opponent get all caught up in other people's opinion.  You don't you do it."

MYLES GARRETT AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOCUS

"Drinking, smoking, going out -- unnecessary to me. You have to know what you're doing to help people and have an important stance in life. You can only do that by staying focused, and I can't lose focus for a second. It's just like in football, it's a game of angles and seconds. As soon as you lose depth or that amount of time, you can lose that play, you can lose that game. You lose focus, you slip up, you're not in the same place you were before."

                        -Myles Garrett

DO IT WITH CLASS

From Coach Jim Tressel's The Winner's Manual:

Class is respect for others. It is a deep and genuine respect for every human being, regardless of his status in life.

Class is having manners. It is always saying “thank you” and “please.” It is complimenting people for any and every task done well.

Class is treating every other person as you would want them to treat you in a similar situation.

Class never makes excuses for one’s own shortcomings, but it always helps others bounce back from their mistakes.

Class never brags or boasts about one’s own accomplishments. And it never tears down or diminishes the achievements of another person.

Class does not depend on money, status, success, or ancestry. The wealthy aristocrat may not even know the meaning of the word, yet the poorest man in town may radiate class in everything he does.

If you have class, everyone will know it, and you will have self-respect. If you are without class—good luck, because no matter what you accomplish, it will never have meaning.