Bill Belichick names the greatest college football coach of all time

In an interview on College GameDay, North Carolina coach Bill Belichick opened up on some significant issues-- including the identity of the greatest college football coach ever. Belichick is frequently cited as the best NFL coach ever with 333 NFL wins and six Super Bowl titles. But his transition to college head coaching at North Carolina hasn't gone very smoothly, with a 2-2 start.

Belichick's pick

I learned a lot from Coach Saban. We came from different defensive systems and we merged them together in Cleveland. I learned a lot from him about man-to-man coverage... and the 4-3 defense, which he played at Michigan State and Toledo. It's 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've learned from him. He's the best that's ever done it.
Bill Belichick

Belichick and Saban history

It is perhaps not entirely surprising that Belichick would single out Saban as they coached together with the NFL's Cleveland Browns from 1991 to 1994. It is one of the unique wonders of football lore that the Browns had a coaching staff featuring arguably the greatest NFL coach of all-time as head coach and the greatest college coach of all-time as defensive coordinator and made one playoff appearance in four seasons and posted an overall 31-33 record. But that's exactly what happened.

Saban mostly came up in the college game, although he spent 1988 and 1989 as a defensive backs coach with the Houston Oilers. He was head coach at Toledo in 1990 and posted a 9-2 record before heading to the NFL to work with Belichick. After Cleveland's 11-win 1994 season, Saban departed for Michigan State as head coach, where he went 34-24-1 and led State to a top-10 finish in 1999 before departing for LSU.

Belichick, on the other hand, stayed in Cleveland, and was fired after a 5-11 season in 1995. He spent four seasons as an assistant coach and then returned to a head coaching role with the New England Patriots in 2000. The rest is NFL history. But out of those four seasons together apparently came a relationship that led one GOAT to recognize another to his College GameDay colleagues.