The GOATs are moving on to new pastures.

Alabama Football Head Coach Nick Saban and New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick announced earlier this month they are leaving their respective teams. They part with their dynasties as the greatest college and NFL coaches of all time. 

Saban shocked the football world when he announced his retirement Jan. 10, wrapping up the greatest collegiate coaching career ever. The next day, Belichick, in a less shocking but equally weighty announcement, told the media that he would be stepping down from his post after winning a record six Super Bowls as head coach.

After graduating from Kent State, Saban began coaching at his alma mater in 1973.His collegiate coaching journey continued, including a four-year stint at Michigan State, ultimately landing him in the Southeastern Conference. When Saban joined Alabama in 2007, the Crimson Tide were coming off a 6-7 season that cratered in scandal after a strong start. 

Each of Saban’s 28 straight winning seasons was filled with his passionate leadership and stalwart fortitude, making his teams some of the most disciplined and ready units every year.

Coach Saban only took one year to lay the groundwork for a dynasty that won 201 football games and only lost 29 under his tenure. The Crimson Tide won seven national championships, claimed 11 SEC championships, and spent 15 straight seasons as the top-ranked college team by the Associated Press. 

While at Alabama, Saban coached four Heisman trophy winners and 173 NFL draft picks. Forty-nine of these were first-round picks, making him the most successful coach by this metric. 

Coach Saban, whose teams are known for smothering defensive play, deploys a versatile 3-4 defensive scheme which emphasizes strong fundamentals, gap control, and disciplined coverage. Saban’s 3-4 defensive scheme used inside and outside linebackers to cover the middle of the field and rush the passer, allowing for more versatility and responsiveness to offensive play style in game. 

“He ties man coverage into zone schemes which allows his players to create tighter coverage without the downsides of zone overloads or rub routes vs pure man coverage. Saban is a master at teaching his rules and making sure his defenses are disciplined despite the turnover he experiences in personnel and coaching staff. His defenses continue to produce and help make him one of the best to ever do it,” Casey Sully of Weekly Spiral said. 

In the NFL, Belichick amassed the greatest coaching career of all, most notably as an assistant coach for the New York Giants then as the long tenured head coach of the New England Patriots. Belichick won an NFL record eight super bowls, six of them as head coach, and earned 12 appearances across an NFL best 19 postseason berths as a head coach.

Belichick further cemented his legacy in the regular season, winning 11 or more games across 17 seasons while coaching 96 pro bowl players. The Patriots head coach departs from the NFL with the second-most total wins as a coach with 333. 

Like Saban, Belichick’s teams featured hard-nosed run defenses that limited opponents’ ability to move the football, through what he called ‘positionless defense’. Belichick relied on pass rushing linebackers who could contain the fast spread style quarterback offenses that have become common, big nose tackles to stop the run, interchangeable slot and outside corners to cover the boundaries in man coverage and hybrid safety-linebackers who were tough against the run and agile in zone coverage over the middle of the field. 

“Belichick can flip from one scheme to another efficiently because of his vast knowledge. He needs hybrid players with multiple tools in the toolbox to do that. These jacks of all trades are often overlooked in the college draft process or misused on other teams. Belichick has a talent for seeing the bigger picture regarding a player’s skills,” Cody Alexander of Match Quarters said. 

Additionally, his offensive strategy of a balanced and up tempo passing attack arguably developed the greatest quarterback of all-time, Tom Brady. 

Regardless of what these two coaches do following these announcements, both have cemented their own personal legacies, building dynasties that sustained success in ways other teams failed.