Appreciating Bill Belichick and Nick Saban

In the past two days, the greatest college football coach of all-time--Nick Saban--retired, and the greatest pro football coach of all-time--Bill Belichick--amicably parted ways with the New England Patriots. It is unclear if Saban will coach again, but it seems likely that Belichick will get another NFL head coaching job. It is fitting to discuss them in the same article because their careers are intertwined.

Saban and Belichick have been friends since the early 1980s when Saban worked with Belichick's father Steve on the coaching staff at Navy. When Bill Belichick became head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1991, Nick Saban was the first assistant coach he hired. As the defensive coordinator, Saban played a key role for the Browns as they improved from 3-13 the year before Belichick took the reins to 11-5 in 1994. Belichick's Browns coaching staff included not only Saban but also Ozzie Newsome--the Hall of Fame tight end who later built the Baltimore Ravens into two-time Super Bowl champions--plus Kirk Ferentz (who has coached Iowa to 196 wins since 1999), and Pat Hill (who later won 112 games as an NCAA head coach). Belichick and Saban are football savants who share a love for dissecting the sport's intricate details and then preparing meticulously to exploit even the slightest possible advantage.

Saban left the Browns after the 1994 season to become the head coach at Michigan State. He led the Spartans to a 34-24-1 record in five seasons before becoming LSU's head coach. LSU went 3-8 and finished last in the SEC in 1999, the year before Saban arrived; just four years later, Saban led LSU to a 13-1 record and the national championship. After one more season at LSU, Saban left to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins went 15-17 in two seasons under Saban; their 6-10 mark in 2006 is the only losing season Saban suffered as a head coach (not including 2007, when Alabama was forced to vacate four wins due to NCAA sanctions stemming from misconduct that mostly took place under Saban's predecessor Mike Shula).

Saban left the Dolphins to become Alabama's head coach in 2007, and the rest is history, as Saban led the Crimson Tide to six national championships (2009, 2011-12, 2015, 2017, 2020) in 17 seasons. Saban has won more national championships (seven) than any coach in NCAA football history, and he ranks sixth on the all-time NCAA wins list with 292. Saban is the first and only coach to win a national championship at two different FBS schools since the inception of the AP poll in 1936, and he joined Paul "Bear" Bryant as the only two coaches to win an SEC title at two different schools. Saban was equally adept at recruiting elite athletes and developing innovative tactics; there have been many coaches who mastered one of those aspects, but it is difficult to imagine another coach matching Saban's acumen in both. Alabama never had a Heisman Trophy winner before Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa; the Crimson Tide had four Heisman Trophy winners on Saban's watch: Mark Ingram (2009), Derrick Henry (2015), DeVonta Smith (2020), and Bryce Young (2022). Only four schools have more Heisman Trophy winners than Alabama: Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and USC each have seven Heisman Trophy winners--but those schools accumulated their Heisman Trophies over several decades, while Saban moved Alabama to fifth on the all-time list in 15 years.

Belichick dominated the NFL in a similar fashion to the way that Saban dominated the NCAA. Belichick only coached one more season with the Browns after Saban departed; after Art Modell announced his plan to move the Browns to Baltimore, Belichick endured a tumultuous 1995 season. Modell fired Belichick after that 5-11 campaign. Belichick spent the 1996 season as assistant head coach with the New England Patriots under Bill Parcells, and then he moved to the New York Jets with Parcells, serving as assistant head coach from 1997-1999. After Parcells left the Jets, Belichick was the heir apparent, but Belichick made a shrewd assessment of the situation and decided to instead become the head coach of the New England Patriots. Belichick took over a team that went 8-8 under Pete Carroll, and Belichick's critics howled after the Patriots went 5-11 in 2000--but the Patriots improved to 11-5 in 2001, winning the AFC East and defeating the favored St. Louis "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI. 

The Patriots slipped to 9-7 in 2002 but then won back to back Super Bowl titles in 2003 and 2004 en route to posting 17 consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins; during that time, the Patriots won 16 AFC East titles (including 11 straight from 2009-2019), and three more Super Bowls (2014, 2016, 2018) while posting the first (and only) 16-0 regular season (2007) in NFL history. In 2008, the Patriots went 11-5 despite losing Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady to a season-ending knee injury in the first quarter of the first game. When the Patriots beat the L.A. Rams 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII, Belichick became the oldest coach to win a Super Bowl.  

Belichick made his name as a defensive guru--his defensive game plan as the defensive coordinator for the Giants' first Super Bowl win is an exhibit at the Pro Football Hall of Fame--but during his career he has proven that he can adjust with the times as well as with personnel changes. At the start of his New England tenure, the Patriots relied on stern defense and timely offense, but after Brady developed into an elite passer Belichick opened up the offense and the Patriots' offense became fearsome. Belichick was successful when he had superstar receiver Randy Moss, and he was successful when he had a receiving corps devoid of Pro Bowl receivers. Belichick has a grandmaster level understanding of situational football, and his special teams units contributed heavily to the success of his teams.

Belichick has won six Super Bowl titles in nine Super Bowl appearances as a head coach. He is the record holder in both categories by a wide margin, with Chuck Noll ranking second in wins (four) and Don Shula ranking second in appearances (six). In the pre-Super Bowl era, George Halas and Curly Lambeau each won six NFL titles.

Belichick holds NFL coaching records for most playoff wins (31, nine more than Andy Reid), most division titles (17, four more than Shula, Andy Reid, and Tom Landry), most conference championships in the Super Bowl era (nine), and most Super Bowl appearances (12, including three as an assistant coach). Belichick ranks third all-time in NFL regular season wins (302), trailing only Shula (328) and Halas (318); if you add up regular season wins and playoff wins, Belichick's 333 trails only Shula's 347. Belichick's 21 winning seasons are fifth on the all-time list behind Halas (40), Shula (33), Lambeau (33), and Landry (29).

It is no secret that New England has not played well during the four seasons after Tom Brady left New England to go to Tampa Bay--but people who have short memories or who lack knowledge of football history place too much emphasis on these last few years of Belchick's New England career, and they focus too much on whether Belichick or Brady deserve the most credit for New England's unprecedented success. Hall of Fame quarterback play is almost always required to win a Super Bowl, and after winning Super Bowls even the greatest NFL coaches rarely end their careers on a high note.

There are 13 coaches other than Belichick who have won at least two Super Bowls. Andy Reid is the only two-time Super Bowl winner who is currently coaching an NFL team.

Noll won all four of his Super Bowls with Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw at quarterback. Bradshaw retired after the 1983 season, and Noll posted a 2-2 playoff record in his final eight seasons after going 14-6 in the playoffs from 1969-1983. Noll had eight seasons with at least 10 regular season wins from 1972-83 but did not win more than nine games in a season after 1983.

Joe Gibbs and Bill Walsh are next on the Super Bowl coaches list with three championships each. Gibbs won Super Bowls with three different starting quarterbacks, none of whom are Hall of Famers. His Washington Redskins went 9-7 in the season after his last Super Bowl win, and he retired. Gibbs came back to the Redskins 12 years later, but he did not match his earlier success, posting losing records in two seasons out of four and failing to qualify for the playoffs in all four seasons before retiring for good. Walsh is the rare NFL coach who left on top, retiring in 1988 after his San Francisco 49ers won their third Super Bowl in an eight season span. Hall of Famer Joe Montana was the quarterback for all three of Walsh's Super Bowl champions. Walsh later came back as the head coach at Stanford, where he had posted back to back bowl wins before becoming the 49ers' coach; he led Stanford to a bowl win in 1992, but closed his coaching career with 4-7 and 3-7-1 records. 

Shula's Miami Dolphins won back to back Super Bowl titles in 1972-73 with Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese, and Shula led the Dolphins back to the Super Bowl twice in the 1980s, but in the 10 seasons after his last Super Bowl appearance the Dolphins posted a 3-4 playoff record and missed the playoffs six times. 

Landry led the Dallas Cowboys to 20 consecutive winning seasons and two Super Bowl titles, but in his final three seasons the Cowboys went 7-9, 7-9, and 3-13. Hall of Famer Roger Staubach was the quarterback for both of Landry's Super Bowl champions

Bill Parcells won two Super Bowls in a five season span--both times with Belichick running the defense--but his teams missed the playoffs four times in his final seven seasons, and he did not win a playoff game in his final five seasons. Like Gibbs, Parcells won his Super Bowls without having a Hall of Fame quarterback.

Tom Coughlin's New York Giants twice defeated Belichick's Patriots in the Super Bowl, but after that second Super Bowl win Coughlin did not make another playoff appearance in his final four seasons, posting losing records in the last three. Coughlin's two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback Eli Manning is not yet Hall of Fame eligible, but it is a safe bet that Manning will be a Hall of Famer. 

Mike Shananan led the Denver Broncos to back to back Super Bowl wins in 1997-98 with Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway running the show. After 1998, Shanahan went 1-5 in the playoffs, and he finished his career coaching the Washington Redskins to three losing seasons in a four year span, including a 3-13 record in his final campaign. 

George Seifert succeeded Walsh, and won a Super Bowl in his first season with Montana as the quarterback. Seifert won his second Super Bowl in 1994 with Hall of Famer Steve Young as the quarterback. Seifert coached five more seasons (two with the 49ers and then three with the Carolina Panthers), posting a 1-2 playoff record and ending his career with back to back losing seasons, including a 1-15 record in his final campaign.

Tom Flores led the Raiders to two Super Bowl wins in a four year span, but he did not win a single playoff game after capturing his second Super Bowl title. The Raiders had losing records in each of his final four seasons. Jim Plunkett, who is not a Hall of Famer, quarterbacked both of Flores' championship teams.

Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers to five championships, including wins in each of the first two Super Bowls. Hall of Famer Bart Starr quaterbacked all five of Lombardi's championship teams. Lombardi retired after his second Super Bowl win/fifth championship, only to return a year later to coach the Washington Redskins. Lombardi led the Redskins to a 7-5-2 record in his only season with the team before he died of cancer.

Jimmy Johnson coached the Dallas Cowboys to back to back Super Bowl wins in 1992-93 before losing a power struggle with owner Jerry Jones. Hall of Famer Troy Aikman quarterbacked both of those Super Bowl champions, and then he won a third Super Bowl with Barry Switzer coaching Dallas. Johnson returned to the NFL in 1996 with the Miami Dolphins, posting a 36-28 regular season record and a 2-3 playoff record without reaching the conference championship round, let alone the Super Bowl.

It should be noted that Paul Brown led the Cleveland Browns to seven league championships in the pre-Super Bowl era--four straight in the AAFC and then three in the NFL. Hall of Famer Otto Graham was his quarterback for all seven championships. Brown coached the Browns for seven more seasons after Graham retired; during that time, the Browns lost twice in the NFL championship game. Modell fired Brown after the Browns went 7-6-1 in 1962. Brown returned to pro football in 1968 as the owner/coach of the expansion Cincinnati Bengals in the AFL, leading the Bengals to a 55-56-1 record in eight seasons (two in the AFL and six in the NFL). The Bengals went 0-3 in the playoffs under Brown.

The point is not to throw shade on any of these great coaches, but to just emphasize that Belichick's late career record is not unusual and does not in any way diminish what he accomplished during his prime. It will be interesting to see how Belichick fares if he is hired by another team.

For any football purist it was a joy to watch teams coached by Belichick or Saban, because their teams were disciplined, well-prepared, calm under pressure, and fundamentally sound.

Nick Saban on the Mindset of a Champion

The May 1, 2018 issue of Fortune profiled many individuals who are leaders in their respective fields. Coach Nick Saban, who has won five national championships in nine years with Alabama and six national championships overall (the most by any college football coach in the poll era, dating back to 1936), was the obvious choice for college football (if not for the entire sports world).

Bill Belichick and Nick Saban worked together for the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s before becoming, respectively, the greatest pro football coach and greatest college football coach of this era (if not all-time). One of Belichick's most famous mantras is "Do your job"; Belichick urges each coach on his staff and each player on his team to focus on the specific responsibilities of his job and to depend on each other coach and player to also do his job. "Do your job" encompasses many concepts, including the idea that if one player is hurt or ineffective then his backup is expected to come in and not just perform adequately but rather perform at a high level.

One example of that from Saban's recent experience is the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship Game versus Georgia. At halftime Alabama trailed 13-0 and Saban benched his experienced starting quarterback Jalen Hurts in favor of 19 year old freshman Tua Tagovailoa, who clinched the championship for Alabama with a 41 yard touchdown pass in overtime. Such individual and team success is not a fluke but rather a result of season-long preparation for such pressure-packed moments.

Saban told Fortune, "To me it takes a completely different mindset to stay successful as opposed to what you have to do to build something to be successful. All of us are sort of geared toward, if we have success, we're supposed to be rewarded for it, not necessarily that we have to continue to do things even better than we did before."

Saban explained that being a champion requires a different and special mindset: "I mean, it's like you make an A on a test and you say, 'I can take it easy for two weeks and make a C on the next test and have a B average' That's normal. It's special for somebody to make an A on the test and say, 'I'm going to try to make the highest grade ever in the class.' That's not normal. But yet, that's what you have to try to promote from a mindset standpoint to the people in your organization."

Pondering the Dynasty that Belichick and Saban Could Have Built in Cleveland

Winning Super Bowl LII would have been a crowning achievement for Bill Belichick, who already owns more Super Bowl rings than any head coach (five: 2001, 2003-04, 2014, 2016) in addition to the two rings that he won as an assistant coach with the New York Giants. However, Philadelphia's thrilling 41-33 victory over Belichick's defending champion New England Patriots does not tarnish the impressive legacy that Belichick has already built.

Jenny Vrentas' recent Sports Illustrated piece titled Belichick and Saban: The Stories Behind Football’s Most Powerful Friendship details the deep and long-lasting bond that exists between Belichick--arguably the greatest pro football coach of all-time--and Nick Saban--arguably the best college football coach of all-time, winner of six national championships (2003, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017).

One of the most overlooked football stories of the past 30 years is the tremendous quality of the coaching staff that Belichick assembled when he was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Not only was Saban on that staff, but Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome--who went on to build the two-time Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens--was also hired by Belichick. Numerous other members of that staff have made a significant impact throughout pro and/or college football as executives, head coaches or assistant coaches.

Vrentas describes how the Belichick-Saban connection formed in Cleveland, after the two had previously become acquainted a few years earlier as they each worked their way up the coaching ranks:

Belichick got his first head coaching job in 1991--at age 39, with the Browns--and interviewed 85 potential assistant coaches. But his first hire was the easiest: Saban, as his defensive coordinator. He assembled an all-star staff, including nine future NFL head coaches or GMs and three coaches who would go on to lead major college programs. "But I'm going to tell you," says (Chuck) Bresnahan, the Navy linebacker who joined Belichick's Browns staff as linebackers coach, "when Bill and Nick walked in the room, there was a different response from players, coaches, everyone. Things got quiet. You knew it was time for business.'"

Before Belichick and Saban worked together in Cleveland, they had spent hours together--in secret, without their respective teams at the time knowing about this--talking football strategy and breaking down plays together. They were two like-minded, single-minded football savants who were trying to figure out how to implement the ideal method of building a team. Vrentas writes:

Belichick was trying to install a system of coaching players, evaluating players, assembling a roster. Those conversations he and Saban had at West Point about defense? In Cleveland, it was "like, 500 times more of that," Belichick says.

Vrentas notes that Belichick and Saban have different tendencies, particularly on defense: by nature, Belichick favors a more conservative bend but don't break run-stopping scheme, while Saban prefers an attacking front supported by man to man coverage. Belichick and Saban shared the same cornerstone, though, as Vrentas puts it: "Be rigid in fundamentals and techniques, but flexible in scheme." Both coaches proved over time that they could adapt their preferred schemes to both their personnel and also the opposing team's personnel.

Belichick took over a Cleveland team that went 3-13 in 1990 and doubled that win total to 6-10 in 1991. By 1994, the Browns had the best scoring defense in pro football--allowing just 12.8 ppg--and, at 11-5, were a playoff team. They beat New England in the Wild Card round before falling to Pittsburgh in the Divisional Round.

Then, in the middle of the next season Browns owner Art Modell announced his plan to move the franchise to Baltimore, where the team was renamed the Ravens (the NFL returned the Browns franchise/logo to Cleveland in 1999); that decision turned the fans against Modell and wrecked the team that Belichick had built. Modell fired Belichick, who resurfaced as a head coach a few years later in New England--and the rest is history, as Belichick finally had an owner (Bob Kraft) who enabled Belichick to fully implement his vision of how to build a team. While Belichick built a dynasty in New England, the Browns have yet to win a playoff game since the 1994 season.

Vrentas references a talk that Saban once gave to 1500 high school coaches at Mississippi's annual coaching clinic. Saban repeatedly mentioned not just how much he had learned during his time with Belichick--including, most importantly, "He defines what everybody in the organization is supposed to do"--but he also referred more than once to his time with the Browns. Saban explained that one of his key defensive concepts at Alabama--"pattern matching," a zone coverage that morphs into man to man as a pass pattern develops--"started at the Browns."

Another thing that started with the Browns is what Belichick called three "critical factors" for each position: essential criteria for a player to perform in a given role. For example, cornerbacks must be able to (1) tackle, (2) play the ball in the deep part of the field and (3) play man to man effectively. Belichick also had specific height/weight/speed preferences for each position. Saban told Vrentas that Belichick's systematic personnel evaluation techniques had "the greatest impact for me" of anything that he experienced while working with Belichick in Cleveland.

Newsome borrowed the three "critical factors," renamed them "Triangles of Success" and used the concept while building the Ravens into perennial contenders and two-time champions.

Thinking about all of this history and all of these championships won--none of them in Cleveland, where the foundation for all of this success was built--I recall how relentlessly the Cleveland media (and, often, the national media as well) belittled and attacked Belichick both during his time with the Browns and for many years afterward. These self-styled experts made declarations about how Belichick was not suited to be a head coach--and then, after it became clear to even the stupidest sportswriters that Belichick is in fact a great coach, Belichick's critics had the nerve to still assert that Belichick had "failed" in Cleveland before learning how to win in New England.

No, the truth is that Belichick built the foundation for his success in Cleveland, but Modell and many media members were not smart enough to understand this. Smart football people, though, are still applying lessons from what Belichick was doing back when he was mocked for mumbling at press conferences, as if engaging in snappy repartee with people who don't know the game has anything to do with actually coaching well.