Saban v. Belichick

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

this should be interesting.

[Santander]

S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!

[Dereich]

Incomparable. Belichick's job is dealing with paid professionals and strategizing around teams and schemes that are (theoretically) in parity. He can play on his best players being around for many more years than a college coach.

Saban, on the other hand, has to deal with (theoretically) amateur players. They might leave in 2 years if they're good enough.  Probably the most important thing he does is recruit, which involves people skills and figuring out who you need to talk to and what you need to say to get someone to come to your school. Those are skills a pro coach doesn't really need. He also only REALLY has to deal with a small handful of teams who can even come near the quality of players that he has.

Saban's skills don't really fit the pros (there's a reason he didn't stay at Miami) and I really really don't think Belichick's would fit college.

If forced to compare, I'd say Saban wins out because he's put together lasting dynasties at multiple schools. His college coaching skills are nothing short of phenomenal and there is nobody on his level.

[Hoosier_Nick]

Belichick's success is more impressive imo since the NFL is so restrictive and handicaps the bad teams so much with the salary cap, draft, etc. College has practically nothing like that so the top schools get the free reigns to dominate.

[NewYorkExpress]

Can we just agree they both belong in the Coaching Hall of Fame (along with Joe Torre, Casey Stengal, Bear Bryant, John Calipari, and Sir Alex Ferguson)?

[Santander]

Can we just agree they both belong in the Coaching Hall of Fame (along with Joe Torre, Casey Stengal, Bear Bryant, John Calipari, and Sir Alex Ferguson)?

None of those coaches can match John Wooden.

[Alabama_Indy10]

I also don't really think you can compare them. Saban is a great college coach and Belichick is a great NFL coach.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

John Calipari

LOL!

[dead0man]

John Calipari

LOL!

he likes Bellicheat, Saban and Calipari....clearly ethics are not important to him.

[AN63093]

Neither.  You might as well be comparing two different sports.

I think both are probably among the best currently coaching in their respective categories.  I also think both are somewhat overrated- Saban I already typed up a long screed in the "Opinion of Saban" thread.  Belichick, I think it's underappreciated how much of the Pats' success is due to the simple fact that they have Brady, who is one of the greatest QBs of all time.  

But, basically what Dereich said.  College FB and NFL are really only superficially alike.  Dereich is right in pointing out in that in college, a big component of your abilities as a coach is how well you recruit, and there is nothing like that in the NFL.  In the NFL, you have other concerns to deal with, like the draft, and the business aspects of the game (salary, player contracts, trades, etc.).  Now you may often have a separate manager position to handle that, or not (Belichick does it for the Pats), but either way the coach still has to be attuned to that stuff if you want to build a years-long dynasty, and it's just not something you have to deal with in college.

And then there are the differences in the game itself.  As Dereich mentioned, in the NFL you have close to parity.  The difference between the worst team and the best team may only be a couple of key players.  On any given sunday, even the worst team can surprise the best team and sneak away with a win.  In college, that just doesn't happen.  There are so many teams, that the best ones often are worlds apart from the worst.  A team like Alabama may send players to the NFL every year, and then you got teams that may send someone to the NFL once every 30 years.

But it's not just parity in skill either- in the NFL, every team has pretty much the same pro-style playbook.  There are a couple variations (like if you have a running QB vs a pocket passer), but that's pretty much it.  In college, it's like the Wild West; you see all sorts of crazy stuff.  Speaking of Alabama, they're one of the closest teams to an NFL system in college.  But they got the talent to do it- many other teams have a playbook chock full of gimmicks.  In college, you never know exactly what you're gonna get each week.  In the NFL, it's a lot more predictable.

Also in the NFL, you'll see the same people at the same teams for years and you may play them several times (especially if they are in your division).  So you're gonna have a ton of tape to analyze.  In college, even the teams you see all the time lose players constantly (there is a lot more turnover in college), so teams can look entirely different from year to year.

So it's apples and oranges.  Very rarely will a coach skilled in one style be skilled at the other, which is why you don't see as much crossover as you'd think.

[Senator-elect Spark]

Saban, Belichick doesn't play by the rules so he's disqualified.