Nick Saban through the years: A timeline of his greatest hits
The Browns went 20-28 over Saban’s first three seasons as defensive coordinator before finally breaking through in 1994, going 11-5 and allowing a league-low 12.8 points per game. Despite a friendship that has endured over the years, Saban has called his four years coaching under Belichick the “worst of my life” and chafed under Belichick’s conservative defensive philosophy. “Nick was so pissed with Bill,” Browns defensive end Rob Burnett told Ian O’Connor in his Belichick biography. “He wanted to do so many things and he was hamstrung by Bill. I used to meet with Nick all the time, and Bill would not bend as far as changing defenses. He stayed as vanilla as ice cream. … To Nick I was like, ‘Oh, man, remember in training camp when they couldn’t block us on this blitz?’ He goes, ‘I know, I know. But sometimes I put it in the game plan and Bill won’t run it on Sundays.’ … At the end, it wasn’t the best relationship.”
