Bill Cowher: "You Have Anything You Want Here"
NC State alumnus Bill Cowher met with the media Friday evening at Carter-Finley Stadium prior to his induction into the Wolfpack's Ring of Honor.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Cowher’s press conference. A transcript will be provided below.
Opening Statement
When Boo [Corrigan] and Dave [Doeren] told me that they were going to do this tonight, I was doing the coaching clinic out here in the spring. I was in Dave’s office, and I looked down at the field. It was very moving. As I stated in my release, I came here as a boy from Pittsburgh, Crafton, Pennsylvania. I came down here in the most formative years of my life. A lot of it was me growing up to be a man on a football field down here. It shaped my entire life. I met the mother of my three daughters. I have seven grandkids to this day. Coming back here is very, very special tonight, very special, and I feel very humbled by all of this.
On his relationship with Doeren…
It's great. I've been with Dave since he's been here. We just talked football, and I get what he's doing. I can see the type of athletes he has coming in or playing in the National Football League today. Ironically enough — it's funny — the last time I was on that field was 2004 as the Pittsburgh Steelers were working out Philip Rivers. We ended up drafting Ben Roethlisberger since Phil was gone. It's not a slight to Ben; we certainly won a championship a year later. Dave has been fantastic. I think what he does in his community, what he stands for as an individual — not just on the field, but off the field — holding people accountable, setting the right examples, giving back to the community; he represents all those things, and that's what this institution is really all about.
On the most influential people he’s known at NC State…
Lou Holtz recruited me to come down here. I played with Johnny [Evans] for a few years, and I ended up playing with Johnny with the Cleveland Browns my first year. Say what you want about Chuck Amato, but he coached me down here. Bo Rein gave me a chance to come back when I got cut by Philadelphia to become a grad assistant. It was actually my first indoctrination into coaching, coaching down here as a G.A. Ironically enough, I was going to "Chapel Hill High School” [North Carolina] to get my degree and coaching over here at NC State. It was a bitter drive just to make it going over there, but I was enjoyed the end of the day when I came back. I would say those people: Lou, Bo, Chuck, and really even the school of education. I graduated from there. I’m very proud to be from the school there. Like I've said before: coaching is teaching, and I learned so much being here through that. My time here, the 4-1/2 years I spent here, are very, very instrumental in my upbringing.
On the excitement being back on the field…
Without a doubt. This is going to be very, very special. I talked to the team last night a little bit. It’s going to be special. I’m not used losing night games, and I don’t plan on starting now.
On reconnecting with the teammates he grew up with on the field…
It was really special today. I went to Amedeo’s. They did a great job of allowing me to invite all the players we had and the coaches we had. Coach [Darrell] Moody was there. Coach Amato was there, and some of the guys I played with [were there]. We sat there and rehashed some stories. It just brought back so many memories. It really does. We talk about going down memory lane, and I can't think of a negative one, even from a standpoint of some of the losses. Like I said, I met my wife down here, the mother of my three daughters, and I’ve had seven grandkids. Seeing some of the people there and talking about those times. Three of the grandkids are here with me; two of them will be on the field with me tonight. It's special. That's what life's about: to be able to share your your experiences, your memories, a degree of wisdom that you may have gained along the way. Let them see what you were a part of. That's what it's called the journey of life.
On the lessons learned at NC State…
You get knocked down; you get back up. Nothing’s going to be handed to; you have to earn everything to get. The power of the mind is very powerful. When I walked on the field, I became a certain way; when I walked off, I became a different person. When I was on the football field, it was about being united with a sense of purpose. Having a will, not being discouraged, just accept every challenge that’s thrown at you. I’ve learned to accept a lot of challenges coming down here.. Like I said, I left here a more confident person than when I came. I’m very blessed that I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had.
On what advice he’d give 16- or 17-year-olds looking to attend NC State…
Don't look at another school. You have everything you want here. You have opportunity to experience, whether it be an athletic journey or an educational journey. The socialization that you get here, to me, is above it all. The diversity you have and, again, the opportunities you have — like I said, I may have grown on that field, but I grew even more off of it. I just had the chance to share what this area is all about, what the Triangle is all about, and what this university’s all about. It’s got a little blue collar edge, to me. You know, I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I worked in a steel mill, and somehow when I came back down here, in Raleigh, North Carolina, I still feel that same sense of blue collar, that same sense of work ethic, that same sense of pride, commitment, and trust. New opportunity: that's what this school, to me, offers. It gives you a little bit of everything, and that's what you need in life to be successful.
On the memories, games, and moments that stick out…
I remember playing as a freshman, one of the games against Penn State. Another against the teams that never gave me a call from your scholarship because they said I was too small. I remember the last game against Pitt. They didn’t offer me anything either. I made a lot of things personal when I played, so those games meant a little bit more to me. I just remember my teammates as much as I remember anything. I remember the camaraderie that we had and the brotherhood we had. That's what we had; we had a close team. We were a tough team. We had each other's backs. I just remember that part of it, leaving here, and finding myself coaching five or six years later, just remembering, “That's the kind of culture that I want to build.” It takes time to get the right people to believe in the same thing and who are committed to the right things, and that was forged here.
On seeing NC State reach the same heights the 1979 team did…
It’d be awesome. Listen, I don’t know who's in the ACC anymore, to be quite honest with you. There are so many different teams. When you go out on their field, just get everything you got. You’re gonna go up against a 4-0 team tonight. It's a great challenge. They’ve got a big-time offense with a lot of speed. The one thing I know that there's going to be an energy in that stadium that you can feed off. we knew it’d mean a lot. Dave is constantly trying to tweak things, as I think you're always are in coaching. You’re constantly tweaking, and you're always constantly learning, changing, trying to stay ahead of the curve, and gathering that one open that gets you over the hump. That's what coaching is all about, but at the same time, instilling core values that these young men leave here, if they don't play more football, what they've learned in life, they can be successful to other things. There is a commitment. There is a sacrifice that you have to make. There’s a trust that you have to have at some point. These are all qualities that allow you to be successful in life.
On Rivers’ “Wolfpack ain’t for soft people” quote…
It’s very, very accurate. It's one of those things; you have to hold people accountable. We try to do that, even as a player. As a coach, holding people to a kind of accountability sometimes gets lost in our profession. That's the job that we have is to hold people accountable. That sense of commitment and sense of sacrifice that you've got to be willing to make, those are the little things that, to me, separates teams, separates organizations, separates any culture. It's not so much sometimes what you're wanting to contribute; it's what you're willing to sacrifice. Sometimes, that may be a rule. It may be a commitment to doing more. Everyone has that along the way. We're all in this together, and it’s next man up. I think that's what we're trying to build. I know that a lot of those qualities were forged down here.