Who taught Nick Saban to coach? Exploring the initial career and coaching history of the 7X national champion

Ask any college football fan about Nick Saban, and they will likely tell you the same thing. With seven national titles under his belt, the Alabama head coach is arguably the best CFB tactician of all time--unless that is, you count someone like Bear Bryant over him (who is not a bad pick, too).

But we digress because this article looks at a different thing: Who taught Nick Saban to coach? He couldn't have been this good at coaching college football from birth, so he must have had mentors. And it is safe to say he did have many--some more important than others.

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Who taught Nick Saban to coach?

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was the man behind Nick Saban's coaching career as a true mentor. In an interview with ESPN, Saban revealed the depth of his relationship with Belichick.

They go back to Saban's days at Navy, where he shared an office with Belichick's father. The two got to know each other well, even seeing the Eagles and Ringo Starr's concerts during Saban's time with the Cleveland Browns as a defensive coordinator.

As for the most important lesson that the Alabama coach learned from the now-Patriots GM, here it is in Saban's own words (via NBC Sports Boston):

"I think the thing I learned most from Bill was how he defined every expectation of everything in the organization. How you brought players to the team, how you wanted a team to look on the field, how he defined critical factors for what he expected at every position.

"That’s helped me tremendously because you know what you’re looking for all the time. A lot of coaches don’t define it, so sometimes you get people that don’t fit your system."

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Saban and Belichick: Two undisputed winners

One could liken Saban and Belichick's relationship to that of Yoda and Luke Skywalker's, or basically Emperor Palpatine's to Darth Vader's. Both have roughly similar styles, resulting in a level of coaching success unlike anything the NFL and the NCAA have ever seen.

During his 14 seasons with the Pats, Belichick led them to eight 12-win seasons, five AFC titles, three Super Bowl titles and a sky-high 72.8 percent win percentage. In comparison, Nick Saban's Alabama Crimson Tide won six national championships under him and has an insane .875 win percentage.

Whatever Saban has learned under Belichick over the years surely works at Tuscaloosa.