ZWF: Two legends step away from the sidelines
Zander's Weekend Facts #101: Sunday, January 14, 2024
Inside this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts, two legendary football coaches are hanging up their headsets, and a look at what Zander’s been reading this past week. Plus, a compilation of the top headlines you need to know about from the last seven days.
Also, go listen to the latest episode of the Zander’s Facts Podcast! Episode 129 features a preview of the Iowa Caucuses, which take place on Monday. Download the Zander’s Facts podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
Here are Zander’s Weekend Facts for Sunday, January 14, 2024:
Belichick and Saban’s next steps mark the end of an era in football
Within 24 hours this past Wednesday and Thursday, two of the greatest team-coach pairings that the game of football had seen had come to an end.
Both Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama, and Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, announced that they would not be on the sidelines for their respective teams next season. Saban announced that he was retiring, while Belichick simply announced he was parting ways with the Patriots, leaving open the possibility of coaching again.
Despite whatever the future may hold, it’s simply incredible that two of the greatest football coaches of all time, who perhaps coincidentally share a tight friendship, ended their years-long reigns as dominant faces of their tier of the sport at nearly the same time.
Way back in 1982, Nick Saban joined the coaching staff at Navy as the defensive backs coach. Also on staff was Steve Belichick, father of Bill, who had coached in Annapolis since 1956. Bill was the linebackers and special teams coach for the New York Giants at the time. Since then, Saban and Belichick have been friends who have seen their careers blossom.
Saban worked his way up to the head coaching position at the University of Toledo by 1990, but left after one year when Belichick came calling. In 1991, Belichick had been named head coach of the Cleveland Browns and got Saban to sign on as his defensive coordinator. Since 1990, the Browns have just two Playoff wins, with the first coming in 1994 against the Patriots under the reign of Belichick and Saban, whose defense was the best in the NFL that year. (The second was in 2020 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.)
Saban left after that season to be the head coach at Michigan State University, where he led the Spartans to a 10-win season in 1999, their first since 1965. (Josh McDaniels, who served on Belichick’s staff in New England for 18 years, was a graduate assistant on that 1999 Michigan State team.) Saban didn’t coach the Bowl game MSU played in that year after taking the head coaching job at Louisiana State University.
LSU was where Saban won the first of seven college football National Championships. In the 2004 Sugar Bowl, which co-served as the BCS National Championship for the 2003 season, Saban’s LSU Tigers beat Oklahoma 21-14 in New Orleans.
Saban made the leap back to the pros after the 2004 season, becoming the head coach for the Miami Dolphins. After going a paltry 15-17 in two seasons, Saban went back to the college game, where the dominance resumed.
After a 7-6 record in his debut season at Alabama, Saban never won less than 10 games in the subsequent 16 seasons as head coach of the Crimson Tide. (The longest streak ever in college football’s highest tier of competition.) Saban led the Tide to six National Championships, including three in the College Football Playoff era (the most of any school.) Alabama’s eight appearances in the Playoff and six appearances in the Playoff Championship game are also more than any other contender.
Saban coached all four of Alabama’s Heisman Trophy winners: Mark Ingram II in 2009, Derrick Henry in 2015, DeVonta Smith in 2019, and Bryce Young in 2020. Throughout his coaching career, Saban racked up 292 wins, the seventh-most in Division I all-time behind Roy Kidd, Pop Warner, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Bobby Bowden, Eddie Robinson, and Joe Paterno.
Belichick arrived in New England in 2000, after serving as the New York Jets’ head coach for only one day. The rest is history: Six Super Bowl titles, nine Super Bowl appearances, 17 AFC East championships, and 31 Playoff game wins. (All the most by a head coach in NFL history.)
Thanks to Belichick (and most certainly quarterback Tom Brady), the Patriots lead the NFL with five seasons of winning 14 or more games. And Belichick’s 302 wins all-time as an NFL head coach rank third behind just George Halas and Don Shula.
While Belichick’s days on the sidelines may not be over (the rumors are currently swirling), Saban’s time as head coach appears to be done. Yet, whatever the future holds, it’ll be hard to diminish the legacy that these two coaching giants have left on the game. It’s certainly the end of an era.
For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from Boston Globe - Two GOATS gone: Inside Bill Belichick and Nick Saban’s long friendship
What Zander’s been reading
The annual Consumer Electronics Show took place in Las Vegas last week, showcasing some of the groundbreaking technology that will soon enter your home. From a transparent television to an energy-saving hair dryer, Popular Science lists some of the items that stood out during last week’s show.
Check out this week’s featured article at Popular Science - The best new gadgets and tech from CES 2024 - (Apple News link)
Zander’s Facts Sporting Club
Here are the top headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:
NFL Playoffs: The first round of the NFL Playoffs, the Wild Card Round, began yesterday. The #4 Texans became the first team besides the #1 seeds 49ers and Ravens, who received byes, to advance to the Divisional Round with a 45-14 win over the #5 Browns. On Saturday night, the #3 Chiefs took down the #6 Dolphins 26-7 in below zero temperatures. The action continues later today with the #2 Cowboys hosting the #7 Packers at 4:30 pm ET on Fox, then the #6 Rams take on the #3 Lions at 8:15 pm ET on NBC. An impromptu double-header will take place on Monday as the #2 Bills host the #7 Steelers at 4:30 pm ET on CBS. The game was rescheduled from Sunday at 1:00 pm ET because of blizzard conditions in Buffalo. Finally, the #5 Eagles take on the #4 Buccaneers at 8:15 pm ET on ABC and ESPN.
College Football National Championship: On Monday night, the Michigan Wolverines claimed their first college football National Championship since 1997. #1 Michigan took down #2 Washington 34-13 in the final game of the college football season, winning their first non-shared championship since 1948. The title is the first for Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is the only active football coach to have won a National Championship in college and been to a Super Bowl in the NFL. The championship is Michigan’s 19th, sitting only behind Princeton, Yale, Alabama, and Notre Dame for most all-time at the FBS level.
NFL Coaching Carousel: Eight teams in the NFL have parted ways with their head coaches either during or after the regular season. Of those teams, only one has already filled the position. After Bill Belichick and the Patriots parted ways on Thursday, the franchise announced that linebackers coach Jerod Mayo would be the new head coach. The Chargers, Panthers, and Raiders fired their coaches during the season and have not filled the positions as of Sunday morning. Last week, after the regular season concluded, the Commanders, Falcons, and Titans announced that they had fired their head coaches. The Seahawks announced that head coach Pete Carroll would move to an advisor role with the team and are also searching for a new head coach.
Tiger Woods/Nike: Nike and Tiger Woods announced last week that their decades-long partnership would come to an end. Woods first signed with Nike in 1996, before even playing on the PGA Tour. Since returning to play after suffering injuries in a 2021 car accident, Woods has been wearing FootJoy shoes while still donning other Nike apparel. After not having played since withdrawing from the Masters in April, Woods returned to the course in December’s Hero World Challenge. Woods is expected to play next in next month’s Genesis Invitational.
ESPN Emmy’s Scandal: A report from The Athletic last week found that since 1997, ESPN had used fake names in order to enter personalities into the Emmy Awards. ESPN submitted fake names for ‘College GameDay’ on-air talent and listed them as producers in order to skirt an Emmy’s rule that only allows on-air talent to win individual awards. On Friday, ESPN apologized and returned 37 trophies that had been given to on-air talent.
Rapid-fire Facts
These are top news headlines from the past week in rapid-fire fashion:
Iowa Caucuses: The 2024 presidential primary election season officially begins on Monday with the first contest of the year. The Iowa Caucuses, which have begun every presidential primary season dating back to 1972, will kick off the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Former President Donald Trump is the current frontrunner in the race, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. A Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll released on Saturday night found Trump ahead at 48%, followed by Haley at 20% and DeSantis with 16%. After major controversies took place in 2020, the Democratic National Committee moved to a mail-in primary for 2024, with ballots needed to be received by March 5.
Houthi Strikes: The U.S. and U.K. militaries launched strikes at nearly 60 locations used by Houthi rebels in Yemen on Thursday. The Houthis, a political and military organization that has occupied the Yemen capital of Sanaa since 2014, have been firing weapons at the Red Sea and Israel since the beginning of Israel’s latest conflict with Hamas. Last Tuesday, the U.S. and U.K. shot down the largest barrage of missiles and drones that the Houthis have launched in the last few months. The U.S. struck another Houthi-controlled site on Saturday morning that it determined was used to endanger commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Taiwan Election: Taiwan held its quadrennial presidential election on Saturday. Voters on the island nation elected Lai Ching-te, the Democratic Progressive Party's candidate, with 40% of the vote in a three-way race. The DPP, which has historically favored independence from China, is also the party of two-term incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen. China’s government released a statement in the aftermath of the election saying the DPP does not represent the island. Chinese President Xi Jin-Ping recently claimed that unification with Taiwan was “inevitable,” which the DPP is against.
Government Funding: Leaders in Congress reached a deal on Saturday that would keep the government fully funded through March. The agreement, a two-tiered short-term funding bill, would move funding deadlines to March 1 and 8. The current deadline to keep the government fully funded is January 19 and a continuing resolution would need to be passed in the House and Senate before Friday night. Last weekend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reached a deal that would set overall government spending at $1.66 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year.
Defense Secretary: Secretary of Defense Brian Austin waited three days earlier this month to tell the White House that he had been admitted into the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Austin had been hospitalized on January 1 after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. While there have been calls for Austin’s resignation, President Joe Biden claimed on Friday that he has confidence in Austin, while acknowledging the lack of notification was a lapse in judgement.
Wrapping up the Facts
Before this edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts wraps up, here’s another reminder to check out the latest episodes of the Zander’s Facts podcast. Download and listen to the latest episode of the podcast, along with every episode of Zander’s Facts, wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also listen to every episode of the podcast on this very website. All Zander’s Facts podcast episodes are now available on zandersfacts.com under the “Zander’s Facts” tab for your enjoyment! That includes the next episode of the Zander’s Facts Podcast, which comes out this Wednesday!
That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The facts in print return next Sunday, January 21, 2024.
