Nick Saban has some old school recruiting techniques, and they don’t involve a lot of modern forms of communication.
Yahoo Sports wrote the following on Saban’s recruiting habits when talking about his pursuit of high school star and Crimson Tide commit Antonio Alfano:
Alfano’s recruitment to Alabama offers a window into one of the more telling characteristics about Saban as a recruiter and communicator. In an era where interactions with teenagers flow through text messages, Instagram DMs and Snapchat, it stood out to Alfano that Saban recruited him exclusively and personally by telephone and face-to-face meetings. Of most significant note: Saban didn’t send a single text message.
…
Saban’s throwback methods make his phone calls, in-person visits and high-school stops some of the most effective recruiting tactics in the sport. And it doesn’t go unnoticed by recruits, who consider the call from Saban the ultimate compliment in their recruitments.
Here is a live reaction to me finding out that Saban doesn’t text or DM recruits:
I love this story. How is it not getting more attention? It came out a few days ago and I’d heard nothing about it before I stumbled across it on Twitter.
This story should be getting wall-to-wall coverage. The man has bucked every modern form of technology in favor of face-to-face and verbal interaction. You know what else he’s done? Won six national championships. (RELATED: Who Will Win The College Football National Championship? One Team Is A Heavy Favorite)
Hey, you know, there might just be a connection with her form of recruiting and success on the field. Call me crazy, but I don’t think it’s too hard to connect the dots.
View this post on Instagram
Listen, I’ve worked in college sports and been around college sports for a very long time. I’ve seen some great recruiters and then I’ve seen recruiters not capable of convincing a kid to come out of a burning house.
Would you like to guess which one generally had more actual conversations and less texting? The ones that were the better recruiters.
People like face-to-face interaction when hearing a sales pitch, which is what recruiting essentially boils down to. Major pros to Saban for sticking to his old school guns and choosing to actually speak to people instead of text them. I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that he crushes the recruiting rankings every single year.