The ‘Nick Saban’ tide has officially passed in Alabama. Now, it’s time to flow with the ‘Kalen DeBoer’ tide. Nick Saban was the ‘greatest CFB coach in college history’ but was also quirky. Well, it is not every day that you see head coaches getting sappy about pianos while recruiting. His tale of splurging on a piano when it was above his means and then spending years paying it off was a perfect pitch to hook his recruits, just one of the many techniques he used.

Well, Nick Saban did that for recruitment, instead of going with the technology of using social media for recruitment. It was something Saban avoided like the plague despite texting as communication between coaches and players was legalized in 2016. Something that is changing with Kalen DeBoer on board!

It was either a phone call or a face-to-face meeting with Saban. Several players, like Antonio Alfano, a May 2018 Alabama signee, have confirmed. In his defense, “I do get text messages, and I do read them. I just don’t know how to send them back,” Saban says. Additionally, he just likes to keep it all “a little more personal.” Well, this philosophy is going straight out of the window as his successor, DeBoer, is leveraging social media to its finest.

Almost as a prelude to the new era about to kick start in Tuscaloosa came with the inside information defensive lineman LT Overton unveiled this week. “Never had a head coach on Snapchat. Have DeBoer’s Snapchat. It’s crazy. That’s how connected he is with his players,” Overton said on Crimson Drive. While Saban wasn’t the ‘social media’ type of guy, DeBoer is. DeBoer is not only the Instagram and X type of guy but also a Snapchat guy, a rarity across CFB coaches. Ushering to the new ‘vibe’ of head coach is exactly what DeBoer is capitalizing on in his recruitment process.

How Kalen DeBoer is using Snapchat in recruitment

The answer is simple- by connecting and resonating with the ‘social media’ side of players more. “He brings in a younger generational vibe. He makes sure it’s not just one-sided. He’s around everybody,” Overton puts it. Well, it’s not just his words that say that DeBoer’s philosophy is working.

It is Overton coming to Alabama during Nick Saban’s ‘no social media or texting while recruiting policy’ and staying in Alabama even after Saban left. Plus liking the whole ‘vibe’ that their new head coach brought, all while just spending one off-season with him, is enough proof that DeBoer’s plan is working its magic.