Nick Saban said on Saturday’s College GameDay that he can empathize with longtime friend Bill Belichick after North Carolina slumped to a 48-14 loss to TCU in his collegiate debut. And it was legendary Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne who helped put things in perspective after Saban suffered a heavy Week 1 loss of his own after taking over a new team.
After going 9-2 in his lone season at Toledo, Saban joined the Cleveland Browns to serve as Belichick’s defensive coordinator. After 4 seasons, he was named head coach at Michigan State.
His first game as the Spartans’ head coach was on Sept. 9, 1995, against a 2nd-ranked Nebraska team that won a national championship the previous season. The Spartans ended up losing that game 50-10, but Saban recounted an interaction with Osborne afterwards…