Nick Saban talks about Bill Belichick’s UNC hiring, challenges at hand
By now, it’s well-documented that Bill Belichick is in a new element.
The six-time Super Bowl-winning champion coach was hired and introduced as North Carolina’s newest football coach on Thursday. It’s a move that sent a shock throughout college football given Belichick’s age of 72 and his lack of coaching experience in college football.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban was asked about Belichick’s decision to take over the Tar Heels program Friday during ESPN’s ‘The Pat McAfee Show.’
‘I’m happy for Bill. I think he probably wanted a new challenge and this is certainly going to be a great challenge for him,’ Saban said Friday. ‘North Carolina is a great academic institution, as well as it’s got plenty of athletic tradition there in basketball and football. Bill’s a great coach.’
On top of being two giants in their profession, Saban and Belichick have a long-lasting relationship with each other — which was well documented in the HBO Sports’ documentary ‘Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching.’ Saban served as Belichick’s defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns from 1991-94, Saban’s first coordinator position in the NFL.
Saban, who had served as a head coach in both the NFL and college, continued on what he believes will be Belichick’s biggest challenge coaching at UNC and in college football: recruiting. His biggest point of emphasis was the time put into college football recruiting — which is different from when Belichick recruited, signed and acquired players for the Patriots as the team’s general manager.
‘The difference in college is, how do you bring guys to the team? It’s different than drafting guys than it is to have to recruit them because recruiting is like a full-time relationship building 365 days a year, in terms of not only evaluating the players that you want but creating the relationships with them to get them,’ Saban said.
‘Now everybody says it’s like the NFL because they’re making money now, but it really still takes you to be able to sell them that you’re going to develop them. And I think Bill will be able to do that. But the biggest thing that will be a challenge for him is the time that you have to spend recruiting, making phone calls, talking to parents and all those types of things to get the kind of players that you need.’
He added: ‘I do think Bill will do a great job there of getting good players and he’ll do a great job of developing those players. The biggest adjustment for him will be the time spent recruiting.’
Belichick, along with Michael Lombardi, will be tasked with rebuilding the Tar Heels program and roster through the transfer portal. As of Friday, the Tar Heels have 11 players from last year’s team in the transfer portal, according to 247Sports.
At his introductory news conference Thursday, Belichick was asked if he had conversations with Saban during the interviewing process and if he sought help to prepare for the jump from the NFL to college. Belichick kept his response short.
‘Coach Saban and I have a long friendship and relationship. I have all the respect in the world (for him). Love Coach Saban,’ Belichick said Thursday. ‘In all honesty, I will keep our conversations private. I don’t think really those are to be shared publicly. I appreciate the question and there is nobody that I respect more than Coach Saban.
‘He’s been a great friend for 40 years.’
Belichick’s first game coaching UNC will be against the Big 12’s TCU on Saturday, Aug. 30 inside Kenan Memorial Stadium, as Tar Heels interim coach Freddie Kitchens will coach the team in the Fenway Bowl vs. UConn.