Nick Saban downplays the difference for Bill Belichick coaching college players rather than NFL

Nick Saban downplayed the difference between the NFL and college football coaching when it came to Bill Belichick at North Carolina. He was quite confident that Belichick could make the adjustment while with the Tar Heels.

He’ll have to, considering he’s been out of the NFL for a couple of seasons. Many assumed Belichick would have some challenges adjusting to a younger team in a different scenario.

However, Saban kept it simple regarding his former boss. If you keep it about coaching and making players better, the results will follow. Just don’t ask Saban to give Belichick coaching advice!

“I didn’t give him any advice. You know, he’s my mentor. He gives me advice. I don’t give him advice,” Saban said at the Legacy Award presser. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between coaching a college player and coaching a player in the NFL. If you’re a good coach, which Bill is, and players see that you’re teaching them, you know, in college, their motivation was they wanted to get to the NFL and the NFL, they wanted to extend their careers, play longer, make more money, so the motivation was a little different. 

“But if you were a good coach, the players responded to you exactly the same way. And you know, Bill is a really good coach, and I think the players will respond to him really well. Now, anytime you have a change, you know, you have a lot of obstacles to overcome because of the changes and what the changes create, in terms of players leaving, new players coming in. So it’s a little harder to get your feet on the ground in terms of making an immediate impact, and maybe it was before all this was the way it is.”

Recently, Belichick shared some insight into how leaders are developing for North Carolina. While he didn’t signal any players out individually, he did dive deep into the process of seeing those leaders develop for the program.

“I’d say it’s a process,” Belichick said. “But, yeah. Absolutely. Certainly, some of the players who have more experience have more confidence, whether it be from their time here at Carolina or, in some cases, with other programs that have played a lot of college football. So, they’re confident in what they can do and what things are going to be like.”

North Carolina and Belichick open up the season on Monday, September 1st at home. They’ll host TCU at 8:00 p.m. ET.