"It was tough": When Miss Terry Saban confessed Bill Belichick's job offer left the couple in a difficult spot 

Bill Belichick put Nick Saban and his wife, Miss Terry, in a pickle after offering the coach a defensive coordinator position with Cleveland Brown in 1991. Saban was one year into his head coaching job at Toledo but Belichick wanted his old friend in his coaching staff at Cleveland.

In an NFL Films short documentary about the relationship between Belichick and Saban in Sept. 2021, Miss Terry explained how difficult it was to leave Toledo for Cleveland back then.

“For us, it was a difficult decision,” Miss Terry said (timestamp 1:08). “As much as we loved Bill, and the lure of the NFL, the timing of leaving Nick's first head coaching job and really feeling hard about letting people down there in Toledo, it was tough."

Miss Terry said that since the offer was coming from Bill Belichick, it played a significant factor in their decision-making.

“If anyone else had called, there would not have been a consideration,” Miss Terry said (timestamp 1:40). "But because it was Bill, [it] made a lot of difference.

Miss Terry explains how challenging the tenure under Bill Belichick was

Cleveland Brown was Bill Belichick’s first head coaching job and he needed to make an impression. This pretty much made the job a challenging one for his DC Nick Saban. Miss Terry explained how the stint at Cleveland was.

“This is our 47th year [of coaching], and I still would say that stint with Bill was the toughest on us," Miss Terry said (timestamp 2:20). "But I think that's what makes you a better person, when you push yourself beyond what you think is your limit, from then on every is just relative to that. It's a piece of cake.”

Saban also confirmed how challenging it was working under Belichick. It was his last assistant job as a coach, but the experience gained during that stint prepared a lot him well for the future.

“It was one of the best experiences of my coaching career," Saban said (timestamp 3:15). "It was one of the most difficult, but I learned a tremendous amount, and it really helped me, probably more, as much as anything in my career.”

After four seasons in Cleveland, Nick Saban returned to college football as head coach of Michigan State in 1995.