The football world was quietly buzzing on Friday, after former Alabama coach Nick Saban publicly commented on long-time friend Bill Belichick’s handling of quarterback Mac Jones in New England. By Saturday, everything seemed to be fine between Belichick and Saban.
Belichick appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay from the field in Chapel Hill, where his 2-2 Tar Heels will face 1-3 Clemson at noon ET. And Belichick heaped praise on Saban, who was Belichick’s defensive coordinator in Cleveland from 1991 through 1994.
“I learned an awful lot from Coach Saban,” Belichick said. “You know, we came from different defensive systems, and we merged them together in Cleveland, and, you know, I learned a lot from him about man-to-man coverage, which we didn’t play a lot of at New York, and you know, the 4-3 defense, which, you know, he played at Michigan State and Toledo. So, you know, it was a great experience, you know, watching Nick handle the free agents and recruit and build a program in Alabama. You know, I’m very grateful for the relationship that I have with him and all the things that I’ve learned from him. He’s, you know, he’s the best that’s ever done it, and like I said, it is a real honor for me to just be with him for, you know, those four years and have our relationship and friendship that it’d be almost, you know, lifelong in this career.”
Replied Saban: “I never thought, in all the time we’ve been friends, that I’d ever say that you’re full of shit, but I learned a lot more from you than you ever learned from me.”
Privately, it would be interesting to know whether Belichick thinks Saban is full of shit for what he said on Friday about his former Alabama quarterback, who engineered an impressive upset on Thursday night while fighting through a variety of injuries.
“I’m so happy for Mac,” Saban said on Pat McAfee’s show. “I think Mac was one of those guys who was in bad situations in New England relative to coaching and all that stuff, and who was the offensive coordinator, and how did he get developed when he came into the league.”
That was a direct shot at Belichick. After offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was hired to coach the Raiders in early 2022, Belichick put Matt Patricia, a lifelong defensive coach, in charge of the offense. And Joe Judge, a special-teams coach, was coaching the quarterbacks.
It created a major issue between Jones and Belichick. Jones, a Pro Bowler in 2021 under McDaniels, wasn’t happy with the manner in which his development was affected. And he wasn’t bashful about making that known. Which pissed off Belichick.
By the 2023 season, Belichick rarely if ever even spoke to Jones, per multiple sources. And Saban made a general but pointed reference to the entire situation on Friday.
Maybe Belichick hasn’t heard about it. Maybe he’s playing nice. Or maybe Beichick doesn’t want to start a fight he can’t win.
Currently, Belichick needs all the friends in the media he can get. His football team isn’t nearly good enough. He’ll require key figures in an industry for which he has had constant disdain (except when collecting checks in 2024) to keep him from the same ending with UNC that he endured in New England.