Nick Saban allows coordinators to be on field because of Bill Belichick
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| Photo via The Birmingham News |
They worked together when Belichick was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in the early 1990s, where Saban was a defensive coordinator. Recently, Saban announced that his offensive coordinator, former Oakland Raiders head coach, Lane Kiffin, would be calling plays from the sidelines this year, despite Kiffin's desire to be in the press box.
Chris Vanni of coachingsearch.com reports that Saban usually lets his coordinators choose where they want to call plays from, but felt that it would be more beneficial to Kiffin and the players to have him on the sidelines.
You're probably thinking what Belichick has to do with any of this. Saban's decision to move Kiffin to the sidelines comes from a lesson Saban learned while working for Belichick.
“I’ve probably told this story before, but when I was a coordinator, I always wanted to go in the press box. All the time I was a coordinator at Michigan State (from 1983-87), I was in the press box. You’ve got all your papers laid out, all your calls, what you’re going to do on third down, what you’re going to do against four wideouts, three wideouts. You have it all laid out so you can call it, but you have no impact on the players, and you cannot make adjustments during the game as easily up there, because you can’t communicate.
“When I went to work for Belichick in Cleveland as a defensive coordinator (in 1991), he said, ‘You’re not going to be in the press box, you’re going to be on the field.’ I said, ‘Man, I can’t call all this stuff. We’ve got 52 different personnel groups and all these formations and stuff.’ He said, ‘You install it every day. You’re the one that’s the face of it with the players all the time. You’re the one that they listen to. You’ve got to be on the field so they can make adjustments and impact the players during the game.’
“So I memorized my stuff. I could not pull the call sheet out and look at it during the game. I had to know what I was going to do on everything. He was right. I had a much greater impact on the players and making adjustments during the game. I’ve never made the offensive coordinator come down, but we are going to do it this year.”
So there you have it, folks. Belichick's genius has been rubbing off on people longer than anyone thought. What a guy.
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