Bill Belichick made his ‘College GameDay’ debut as the head man of the North Carolina football program on Saturday with an on-the-field interview and aced it.
The appearance included giving former Alabama coach and ‘College GameDay’ host Nick Saban credit for the ‘awful lot’ of information the former NFL coach learned from their time together with the Cleveland Browns. That apparently isn’t true, according to Saban, who quickly unleashed an expletive at Belichick’s response.
‘I never thought in all the time we’ve been friends, I ever say you are full of (expletive),’ Saban said jokingly back to Belichick on ‘College GameDay’ on Saturday. ‘I learned a lot more from you than you learned from me.’
But what did Belichick learn from Saban over the years? Here’s what the first-year Tar Heels coach had to say, going as far back as their days together with the Cleveland Browns. Saban served as Belichick’s defensive coordinator in Cleveland from 1991 to 1994, the first of two stints in the NFL for the legendary college football coach.
‘I learned an awful lot from Coach Saban. We came from different defensive systems and we merged them together in Cleveland. I learned a lot from him on man-to-man coverage, which we didn’t play a lot of in New York (with the Jets). And the 4-3 defense, which he played at Michigan State and Toledo,’ Belichick said.
‘It was a great experience watching Nick handle the free agents and recruit and build a program at Alabama. I’m very grateful for the relationship that I have with him and all the things that I learned from him. He’s the best to have ever done it.’
Belichick is now in the midst of building his own program in Chapel Hill with the Tar Heels, his first college football coaching job of his illustrious career. Despite being 2-2 on the season, with two losses to Power Four opponents in TCU and UCF, Belichick mentioned on ‘College GameDay’ that he believes the program is making progress and is looking at recruiting classes as a way of building a foundation for success.
North Carolina has its biggest test yet under Belichick on Saturday against another struggling team: Dabo Swinney’s Clemson at noon ET at Kenan Memorial Stadium. A win for the Tar Heels on Oct. 4 not only will be the biggest win of the budding Belichick era but would snap a six-game losing skid to the Tigers.
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