With 10 national championships, 20 conference titles and about a gazillion dollars earned between them, Mike Krzyzewski and Nick Saban make the most accomplished interview-subject combination ever... or at least in the history of Sirius XM's College Sports station.
In advance of Wednesday's Duke-UNC showdown, Coach K interviewed Saban on how he stays current as football keeps evolving.
"I've always had the theory that no matter what we've ever done thorough the years, no matter if I was an assistant coach, coordinator or the head coach, none of it did we invent," Saban said. "We always learned it from somebody else. The game is constantly changing. Especially football is constantly changing. Your game changed dramatically with the 3-point shot but that was 25 years ago. Our game, with pace of play, no-huddle, spread offense, running quarterbacks, has changed dramatically in the last 10 years to where if you didn't really change and research and visit with people who had a better way to try to defend some of this stuff or implement it yourself, in terms of, how could you get your team ready if you never practiced against it? We're just constantly looking for a better way. I mean, constantly."
Despite his reputation as a dictator, Saban said he's a delegator that empowers the people beneath him in his ever-continuing quest for improvement.
"We've got a lot of good people who do a lot of research in their areas and I always listen to what they have to say," he said. "I think there's always a better way and we're always looking for a better way."