One look is all it takes.
After seeing his chiseled jaw, penetrating stare and no-nonsense demeanor, it's easy to see why Auburn's cornerbacks exhibit his old-school mentality, grit and toughness.
"I'm still from the old school--I believe that you got to hit people," said cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley. "I believe that you got to play hard every play. I don't like excuses about things. Our players play with a lot of confidence."
Lolley, who has been at Auburn since joining former coach Tommy Tuberville's staff as a strength and conditioning coach in 1999, said he thinks a coach's job is to take his players and make them the best they can be, while also making it an enjoyable experience.
"Try to take them as far as they possibly can and get everything you can out of them, every inch of the way," Lolley said. "And I think people that can do that--that's the difference, that is the difference in winning and losing--you know, and your players play hard and they believe in you. I think they take your personality."
Lolley's personality was molded in Choctaw County, a sparsely-populated enclave in southwest Alabama, where he grew up rifle hunting deer, wild boar, raccoons and squirrels with the men in his family.
"I remember ol' dogs getting to tree squirrels," Lolley said. "When I was a little boy, I had to learn to shoot 'em with a rifle, with little 22-shorts, them little ole bitty bitty cartridges for the 22.
"Grandpa and them didn't have many shells in those things, and you didn't miss. I remember you took just a little bit of target practice--said they didn't want to waste 'em. And I remember when you went out to hunt, you better not be missing much: they wanted you to be good at it."
Lolley holds his players to a similar high standard, with no room for mistakes. He said he is hard on them in meetings, stressing fundamentals and techniques because they have to make what he calls "big-boy tackles."
Lolley holds himself to the same high standard, though, saying he imparts on his players his responsibility as a coach to get the most out of their abilities and get them to the next level.
"I've failed them if I don't," Lolley said. "I've failed as a coach 'cause I take great pride in that if I take these guys at a place like Auburn University, playing in the conference that we play in, playing the schedule that we play--if they don't make it beyond here to the next level, I have failed, and I believe that."
Lolley said that after a hunt, they always ate what they killed and didn't waste anything. They would also kill an extra deer, he said, if neighbors needed some meat.
"We shared back and forth with each other. Kinda watched out for each other," Lolley said. "I think there's a lot to that. I think a lot about caring for each other: the sharing, the toughness, I think all carried over.
"And I believe it's a way of life...you depend on each other. You're a team."
Nowhere was Lolley's toughness more manifest than in the cornerbacks, who overcame obstacles to help the Tigers lead the SEC in rushing defense.
"There's a difference in being hurt and injured, and we played hurt a lot this year," Lolley said. "I was proud of the kids--our kids know what it takes to be a tough guy, know what it takes to be warriors.
"The thing that I pride them in is being physical, being a physical part of the football team, being a physical part of the game. To me, that's where games are won when it counts."
Lolley said he has no doubt that last year's team had the same strength and sense of community that he experienced as a youth.
"It was a special group," Lolley said. "Coach Chizik was the one who orchestrated all this and brought everything together, tried to make it feel like that same type deal--that everybody was going to be on the same page, everybody was going to do it for each other, everybody played for each other, everybody shared. We didn't care who got the credit as long as we went by our philosophy.
"Everybody kind of scratched each other's back."
Lolley has brought that toughness and sense of community fostered in him during his childhood to the football field since 1977, when he landed his first coaching job as an assistant at South Choctaw Academy after earning a bachelor's degree from Livingston University, where he pitched for the baseball team.
The following season, he became the head coach at Warrior Academy, the youngest head coach in Alabama, he said, according to his fellow coaches.
Lolley would become a staple in Alabama high school football over the next two decades, with coaching stints at Demopolis High School, Stevenson High School and North Jackson High School, whose program Lolley would build from the ground up as the school's first head coach in 1988.
After spending 22 years as a coach at the high school level, Lolley still has a deep affection for high school football.
"It's where football's really at," Lolley said. "Football don't change: it's 11 people out there; it's what you get out of them. You take great pride in trying to get everything you can out of your players. It was that way there; it's that way here."
In 1993, Lolley led North Jackson to the Class 4A State Championship game, where they defeated Daleville for the title.
"We had a great program," Lolley said. "There's good teams, but we used to call ours a 'program.' And to be a program, you got to win all the time, win every year--a program's got a chance to win it every year."
For now, Lolley has his sight focused on the future, on the next season, on the next championship.
"You can't look at what we did last year," Lolley said. "I've already forgot about it. I mean, it's going to be a great memory one day, but not right now. I'm not ready to sit back and enjoy what we've done yet.
"I want to do more. Tomorrow's a new day. Next year's a new year."
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