Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, by the numbers: Key stats behind legendary coaches' careers

The careers of Bill Belichick and Nick Saban have so often been intertwined. They're considered by many the greatest to coach in the NFL and college football, respectively. They coached together with the Browns, and they separately built dynasties in New England and Alabama that overlapped for 17 years.

It's only fitting then that news of their departures from their established powers should come hours apart from one another. Saban will retire following the end of the 2023 college football season. Belichick will be leaving the Patriots in a mutual agreement but could continue coaching. 

Throughout their years together as coaches, football fans have had to grapple with the idea that their team will likely, at some point, have to beat one of the two dynasties to win a title. 

MORE: Longest tenured NFL head coaches

There are plenty of awe-inspiring statistics between these two head coaches. Here's a look at some of the craziest.

Bill Belichick's run with the Patriots and Nick Saban's run with Alabama are both over. pic.twitter.com/h5T04DXYHy

— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) January 11, 2024

Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, by the numbers

13 — League championships

Football coaches have essentially always had to get past either Belichick or Saban since 2000 to win a championship. Even before Saban reached Alabama, his LSU teams were a force in the early 2000s.

When it comes to bringing in rings, no one was better at their respective level than Belichick or Saban. Belichick won six Super Bowls for the Patriots, the most for any coach, elevating New England from no rings to a tie for the most all-time Super Bowl titles. LSU won its third national championship with Saban in 2003. Alabama went from a stalled program to winning six titles under Saban, giving them 18 total titles.

Perhaps the wildest number with Saban is his frequency of titles. If a recruit arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007 or any time until the '21 class, they have a ring, assuming they stayed for at least three seasons. Saban's Crimson Tide teams hadn't come up short of a championship in three straight years since losing the national championship to Georgia in '21, missing the College Football Playoff in '22, and losing to Michigan in the College Football Playoff semifinal.

630 — Total coaching wins

Belichick is just 14 wins shy of Don Shula's NFL record 347 wins (regular season and playoffs). Nick Saban has 297 total wins (292 taking away the five vacated wins), which ranks sixth among Division I coaches.

Adding the two gives a staggering 630 (or 625) wins. Assuming Belichick continues his career, that number will only keep getting higher.

Part of what makes their success so impressive is that it was always consistent. The two combined to average 12.2 wins per season between their Alabama and New England coaching tenures. Belichick's four wins in 2023 were the fewest for either coach during their respective dynasties. Both coaches won at least 10 games in 13 years since '07. Only four times during that span did either come up short of that mark (three times were Belichick and the Patriots).

52 — Members of the coaching trees

These coaches have been around for a long time, and they've had a lot of success. With that comes branches from the coaching tree, as other programs and teams look to replicate the success.

Over Belichick's extensive career, there have been 17 assistant coaches who went on to be NFL or collegiate head coaches. One of them was Saban, who was his defensive coordinator with the Browns from 1991 to '94.

Now wild that both Bill Belichick & Nick Saban are moving on within hours of each other. pic.twitter.com/dkyhUY3nbY

— McNeil (@Reflog_18) January 11, 2024

Saban's coaching career is far more widespread, due in large part to the more frequent rotation of coaches in college and the number of job openings. Per AL.com, Saban has seen 35 former assistant coaches become an NFL or college head coach.

5 — Seasons both coaches took teams to title games in the same year

The Patriots went to nine Super Bowls under Belichick. LSU and Alabama went to a combined nine championships under Saban. During that time, there was plenty of overlap between the two.

LSU won the 2003-04 national championship shortly before the Patriots won Super Bowl 38. In '11, the Crimson Tide won the BCS title and the Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl. For three straight years from '16 to '18, football fans watched a national championship featuring Alabama and a Super Bowl featuring the Patriots, with the two sides alternating titles (Patriots won in '16 and '18, Crimson Tide won in '17).

There were also eight total years in which one coach played for a championship and the other did not, with each coach doing it four times. The Patriots went to Super Bowls in '01, '04, '07, and '14 without a Saban-led team playing in one at the same time and the Crimson Tide played for championships in '09, '12, '20, and '21 without a Belichick-led team doing the same.

6 — Seasons in which neither Alabama nor New England played in a title game

Incredibly rare were years fans didn't have to watch Saban or Belichick lead their two dynasties to the last football game of the year. Since Saban took over at Alabama in 2007, there have only been six years neither the Crimson Tide nor the Patriots played for a championship.

Neither team reached in 2008, '10, or '13 before that prime stretch from '14 to '19 where at least one of the two teams played in a championship. In the later years of the respective dynasties, there have been another three, coming in '20, '22, and '23.

Even in years when Alabama didn't play for the national championship, the Crimson Tide were still viewed by many to be the top title contender in the field. With the exception of Saban's first and last seasons at Alabama, the Crimson Tide were ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll at some point during the year, a record-setting 15-year streak.

Additionally, Saban coached 98 games while his team was ranked No. 1. His teams went 88-10 in those games. The next-closest coaches are Bobby Bowden and Woody Hayes, who both coached 45 games as the No. 1 team.

9 — Alabama players to play for Patriots

The two dynasties haven't seen as much overlap as one might expect, particularly considering there have been 123 players drafted out of Alabama since Saban arrived. However, there are still at least a few. According to Stathead, there have been nine Alabama players who went on to play for Belichick in New England.