The Wolfpack has a new head coach. NC State announced the hiring of Philip Rivers on Friday. Rivers, who was the quarterback from 2000 through 2003, will be coaching for the first time at the college level.
Now, one of the best to ever coach college football is giving him some advice, as Nick Saban spoke ofthe hiring on the Pat McAfee Show.
“First of all, I think Philip Rivers, probably from a technical standpoint, from a football standpoint, being an NFL quarterback for so many years, being a smart guy, he probably will be able to coach the players in that part of it,” Saban said.
“Being a college coach, to me, is all about being a program builder. So you know, recruiting is a really big thing, and developing relationships with people, having the kind of staff that can develop those relationships and provide the leadership for these guys. Little different in terms of how you got to motivate college players versus being an NFL player. He was in high school. Probably a lot of similarities to that. But I think the program part, whether it's academics, whether it's the discipline in the program, how you're going to practice and be most efficient in how you spend the time, which is a limited amount of time in college because of academics. All those types of things, to me, are going to be the key in terms of how you evaluate the players you have on the team, how you evaluate the player you're going to pay, how you're going to evaluate the guys you're going to recruit. You know, all these things take an expertise that maybe hasn't been something he's experienced.”
Article Continues BelowRivers coached the high school game for six seasons, with some success. He led St. Michael Catholic to the playoffs three times, going 50-21 overall.
Still, no one can match the resume of Nick Saban. He won 292 games as a head coach, plus seven national titles, one MAC conference championship, and 11 SEC championships. While Rivers may be excited to take over at NC State, he may want to give a call to Saban and get some sound advice.