Nick Saban reacts to message from Bill Belichick on GOAT status

In the modern era, at least, Nick Saban and Bill Belichick are seen as the GOATs of coaching. Saban being the GOAT in college and Belichick holding that same status in the NFL.

Belichick has praised Saban in the past, and in particular on The Pivot, where he shared that he has learned a lot from Saban, calling him in a class by himself and being without any peers. When Saban appeared on the show, he had the opportunity to react to that praise from Belichick.

“First of all, some of the best things that I know in my development as a coach came from him,” Nick Saban said. “It’s defining every part of a team, every part of an organization. Just like, through all these years, how he defines what you were looking for from players. It was size and speed at every position, critical factors at every position, critical intelligence at every position, and you had to get all the information to do that. He did that in every part of the organization. How he played offense. How he played defense. The people in the administration, salary cap, it didn’t matter what it was, there was always a vertical integration organizationally of how you did things and everybody was always on the same page.”

Nick Saban worked as Bill Belichick’s defensive coordinator in Cleveland, his first stop as an NFL head coach. That’s where the two became close. They remained friends through the years, even when Saban was at a division rival of the New England Patriots, coaching the Miami Dolphins.

For Saban, there are many clear examples of how Belichick affected him throughout his career. The example he shared had to do with how he scouted players and what there was to learn from that as a coach.

“So, I always tell the story, if you went to our lake house, we would have seven bottles of ketchup and no mustard because Miss Terry goes to the store with no list, so she just buys shit, alright? That could never happen with Bill Belichick because he defined — when we went and worked out players, I mean, if you weren’t six foot and weighed 180 lbs and ran less than 4.5 to play corner [you’re out]. Now, there was an exception to that. Aaron Glenn was one of them that I went and worked out and we liked him, but that’s what he wanted at that position. He wanted bigger guys that he thought were more durable, they were longer, they could play more physical, but every position that was defined,” Saban said.

“DB three things a DB had to be able to do. Tackle, play man-to-man, play the ball in the deep part of the field. So, you could evaluate 25 things, but those three things were like critical factors that were fatal flaws. If you couldn’t do those things, that was always going to hurt the team. So, when you look at the film to bring a guy in, I don’t care if it was at Alabama or wherever I coached since I coached with him, we didn’t recruit that guy. He might’ve been a five-star. Josh Jacobs had no stars, but he fit what we wanted as a running back. Damien Harris was a five-star. Josh Jacobs was first team, Damien Harris was second team. Josh Jacobs got drafted in the first round. Damien Harris got drafted in the third round. Played on the same team at the same time.”

In his career, Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls as the head coach in New England. For his part, Nick Saban won seven national championships, including six while at Alabama. All of those came following his time in Cleveland.

“But all those things that I learned from Bill, that’s just an example, made me so much a better coach. Whatever he’s saying, he developed. That’s the way I look at it and that was a hard job we did in Cleveland. Now, they were really bad. We had to change the whole team over a four year period and got in the playoffs,” Saban said. “Number one defense, gave up the fifth fewest points in the league, and the last touchdown was a punt return. So, we didn’t even get to play defense. We were ahead in the game like 34-3 and it was the last game of the year, they had other guys out there playing, the guy runs it back for a touchdown or we would have given up less than 200 points.”

Now, interestingly, Belichick is trying his hand at college coaching where Saban had all of his success. Meanwhile, Saban is retired and doesn’t seem to be looking to re-enter coaching.