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Nick Saban:
First of all, I'd like to take just a second to welcome you all here. We're pleased and happy that so many of you would come to the University of Alabama to try and improve your profession in terms of what you do. It's certainly a privilege for us to try to provide some information that might be beneficial to each and every one of you as teachers and coaches. We certainly try to do this in a first class way. We try to get some of the best possible people for you to learn from. Everything that we've ever done in this profession we learned from somebody else. I've learned a lot from high school coaches and I'm sure we can learn a lot from you. But at the same time we want to use this as an opportunity for us to share with you any knowledge or information that we have. Our staff is open to you; we're welcome to any questions that you have and certainly appreciate you taking the time to come here and be a part of what we're trying to build at the University of Alabama.
Now, you know our next speaker here is certainly a guy that I probably have as much professional respect for as anybody that I've ever known in this profession. We all are fortunate to have mentors – people that we've learned the most from, maybe in terms of establishing our philosophy in terms of what we do, how we do it, why it's important to do it that way. And this next gentleman, Bill Belichick, has probably done more of that for me than anybody else that I know. The years that we've spent visiting on football through the years, the years that we spent together at the Cleveland Browns when he was the head coach and I was the defensive coordinator, just completely elevated my ability to be successful in this profession, and I'll always be indebted to him for that, because he is a great organizer.
You know, there's a saying out there that any business or organizations' design determines the results, and their design for the results that they get. The success that this man has had, whether it was being the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants or the Jets, and what he's accomplished – what he did in Cleveland, which goes unnoticed, because we took the worst team in the NFL and made it a playoff team – also the championships that he's won in New England. But most importantly the consistency that his teams have been able to play with – to win 18 straight games this year– even though they didn't win the Super Bowl, win the championships that he's been able to win. But even in the years when they didn't, they had a tremendous amount of success. I think consistency and performance is probably the number one thing to determine success for all of us, and there's not been anybody that I know or that I have any relationships with that has done a better job of that than my good friend Bill Belichick, probably the best mentor that I have in this world relative to how they've helped me professionally as a person, how to evaluate talent, how to coach people, how to teach. I'll always be indebted to him for that and I hope that you all will enjoy him today. Bill.
Bill Belichick:
Thank you, Nick. Nick had some very kind words. Certainly appreciate them. I honestly can tell you that I've learned a lot more from Nick than he learned from me. Nick's a great football coach. Nobody better on the defensive side of the ball than Nick Saban. You've seen some of it already here in Alabama and you'll see more. You saw it at LSU and I certainly saw it in Cleveland. And I would also say about two of the other gentlemen who spoke today – Dean [Pees], who just got through, and Al Groh earlier this morning – it's been a privilege for me to work with all three of those coaches. Outstanding people, outstanding coaches, and men that I've learned an awful lot from in my career, and feel very privileged to have them as part of a staff that I was on and to be connected with those men in this great game of football.
It's great to be back in Alabama. Really, the last two days have been probably two of the best days of the year for me. Watching film, talking ball, being at the clinic last night, just being around coaches, just talking about football instead of salary cap and contracts and agents and all that stuff. It's good just to be around good, wholesome football.
My connections with Alabama go back a long way. My first year in the league, when I was with the Baltimore Colts, we drafted Mike Washington; he was our first draft pick. And of course at Cleveland, when I went there Ozzy Newsome had just finished playing and I hired Ozzy as a member of the scouting department and also later as a coach, and of course he's gone on to have a great career as the general manager with the Baltimore Ravens; and we drafted Antonio Langham in the first round. And Wes Britt's on our team with the Patriots. I promised Wes that when I came back from Alabama that I'd bring a cup of dirt back for him, put it in his locker so that he can rub a little on him each day. I think I'm also going to take him maybe a little plate of Dreamland, too [Laughter]. And of course most recently, Fernando Bryant, who'll also be with us here. We're excited to have Fernando as part of our organization and part of our team. All of those people have brought great leadership, pride, and the tradition that comes from Alabama football. Of course last but not least, Ray Perkins, who hired me when I was with the Giants in 1979. Of course, Ray coached with us at New York until he came back here in 1983.
So, I feel connected. Even though I've never been at the University of Alabama, I feel connected here – and certainly Coach Saban, one of my closest friends, both personally and professionally. It's an honor and a thrill for me to be here and be part of this great clinic. I'll just try to talk to you a little bit about some of the things that we've been successful with, and many of those things Dean and Al and Nick have all referred to along the way because it's really a part of all of our culture; it's really not anything that's specific to me…
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