Nick Saban: Bill Belichick, North Carolina will be 'work in progress' in 2025

Nick Saban will have his eyes on one of the most underrated matchups of college football’s opening weekend between TCU and North Carolina. The game will signify the first college football game that legendary head coach Bill Belichick has ever coached in.

Belichick is widely regarded as one of (if not the best) NFL head coaches of all time, as he led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl Championships from 2000-2023. He shocked the entirety of the football world this offseason when he took over the Tar Heels program after spending just one year out of the coaching spotlight.

What should Belichick expect when the UNC kicks off on Sept. 1? Saban believes there’s some key differences, and it might be a work in progress as a whole, but the Tar Heels will be just fine under the legendary coach’s tutelage.

“I think coaching is coaching, but I do think there are what I’d call operational differences,” Saban stated, via The Pat McAfee Show. “In college, just take the sidelines for instance — you can have 100 guys out there, while in the NFL you’ve only got about 45. That changes a lot in terms of how you manage things, how it affects you, how it impacts you.

“Now, that’s just kind of a silly operational example. I used to make certain guys stand behind the bench because I hated all the traffic on the sidelines. But here’s my point: North Carolina has 70 new players on their roster. Bill is a great coach, a great teacher, and he’s outstanding at developing players. But when you’ve got that many new players, you don’t really have the chance to develop them all right away.

“So my expectation is that it’s going to be a bit of a work in progress. He’s going to make those players better, they’re going to benefit, and they’re going to create more value for the future because of Bill. But it’s going to take some time, and I think everybody should understand that.”

To put Saban’s point into perspective, North Carolina lost a total of 41 players to the NCAA transfer portal this offseason, but Belichick answered with 42 portalers committing to his Tar Heels program — the No. 8 class in this year’s team transfer rankings. This includes South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez, who will start in Carolina’s season opener.

Belichick is also bringing in 30 true freshmen to his roster, good for a top 50 recruiting class. TCU may be a 3.5 point favorite over North Carolina on the road, according to BetMGM, but bet against the legendary coach at your own risk.

— On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this article.