Nick Saban explains the biggest challenge facing Bill Belichick – and why he won’t have complete control at North Carolina.
Nick Saban is a friend of Bill Belichick and is rooting for him to be successful in his new gig as the head coach at North Carolina.
But Saban is also a seven-time national champion as a head coach and knows what it takes to win at that level.
To parrot the old adage, it’s not about the X’s and the O’s, it’s about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s.
In other words: recruiting is king.
And at the college level, players choose the school, while in the NFL, teams choose the players. So while some are advancing the idea that Belichick will have complete control over all aspects of the program at North Carolina, by definition he won’t have complete control over choosing his players. He will have to trust that the top players will choose him.
“I think 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,” Saban said Friday on the Pat McAfee Show.
“You know, having the resources is important, and I’m glad that the players get paid. I’m not crazy about the system that they’re getting paid in, but I hope we can get that fixed. But I do think Bill will do a great job there of getting good players, and do a great job of developing those players.
The biggest adjustment for him will be the time spent recruiting.”
Much has been made of comparing Belichick — now affectionately called “Chapel Bill” — with Colorado coach Deion Sanders. And McAfee asked Saban if Belichick can take a page out of Sanders’ book by minimizing his in-person recruiting and doing most of it remotely via Zoom and phone calls while relying on his new GM Michael Lombardi to handle the specifics associated with NIL.
Lombardi is already on record encouraging players who want to play for “the greatest coach of all time…please enter the portal, we’ll take you.”
“I mean, they all [the players] want to play in the NFL, and Bill can certainly sell them on the fact, with all of his success in the NFL and the ways he’s developed players, and the reputation he has as a coach, that he’s going to be able to do that, and that’s going to go a long way for these players, because regardless of what they can make in college, it doesn’t touch what they can make if they have successful careers in the NFL,” Saban said. “So I do think that Bill is going to be able to use who he is as a coach, as a tremendous selling tool, and be able to get great players because of it.”
Still, Saban pointed out that it’s a full-time job.
Belichick will turn 73 in April and though he has said he is open to in-home recruiting, it remains to be seen how it all will play out.
“The difference in college is, how do you bring guys to the team?” Saban said. “You know, it’s different than drafting guys…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.
“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.”
