Nick Saban reveals biggest impact of being able to have in-home visits

Over the course of his career, Alabama head coach Nick Saban has been able to consistently have one of college football’s best teams for a number of reasons. One of the most important of those reasons is his excellent recruiting ability.

Now, he’s explained how in-home visits actually impact that recruiting process as a whole.

“I think really what it helps is it really helps relationships,” Nick Saban said. “You know, you get to know the parents better, you get to know the families better, you get to know people better.”

“One of the things that always strikes me, and this is one thing that you couldn’t do during COVID, so I guess one day that class will come up, but every time I take pictures with the guys that graduate when they walk up to me and I shake hands with them and congratulate them the first thing that comes to my mind is their home visit,” Saban said.

“You know when I was in their home. Whether we had fried chicken or whatever the situation was, that’s the first thing I remember, and that’s because you develop relationships with the family and the parents. You’re in their home. Their hospitality is really appreciated. We’ve got some great parents and, obviously, we want to have great relationships with them.”

For Saban, these relationships are where recruiting is most important. It’s in them that players and families build their trust in him. It also helps him to understand the players he wants on his team.

“So, I think it has a huge impact for me in terms of getting to know them,” Saban continued. “And I think it has a good impact on them in terms of they get to evaluate and get to know us a little better.”

Saban has, to this point, an excellent Class of 2023. Through the Early Signing Period, Alabama has the top-ranked class in the country, according to the On3 Consensus Football Team Recruiting Rankings. Currently, the Crimson Tide have seven five-star recruits signed. However, there is still time for that ranking to change.

Nick Saban on NIL’s impact on Alabama’s recruiting class

One of the major ways that recruiting has changed in recent years is NIL. Under the current rules, it’s not supposed to be used as an inducement. However, it undeniably has an impact on a recruiting class, as Nick Saban explained the impact it had on Alabama.

“We’re not allowed to be involved in NLI [NIL], at least from my perspective. You know, I do think that it did have an impact on recruiting with some players I don’t know how you make comments about things that are really crazy, kind of a crazy situation right now, and there’s not really a sensible response to it,” Saban said.

“So, I don’t know how to really respond to it other than the fact that we do a great job of trying to sell what we can do to create value for players and what they can create for themselves here because our players have done a really good job of creating value for themselves in name, image, and likeness by what they do after they get here.”