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Saban’s new skill: using email

Field Level Media

April 08, 2020 at 11:07 pm.

With the Alabama football program reduced to online interaction amid the coronavirus pandemic, Nick Saban is becoming more tech literate.

The Crimson Tide head coach just set up his first email account, he told ESPN’s Maria Taylor in an Instagram Live interview on Wednesday.

“I’ve come a long way,” Saban said. “It was hard to communicate when you have to be by yourself and you always depend on somebody else to get your emails and messages and all that. They were sending them all to Miss Terry (Saban’s wife), and she fired me. She said, ‘I’m not dealing with your stuff anymore,’ and so I had to do it on my own.”

Saban still isn’t totally caught up when it comes to electronic communication, however. He said he still doesn’t use text messages.

“Calling me is about as far as it goes on the text part of it,” the 68-year-old coach said. “But I can actually get an email now and read what somebody — I mean, I’ve really come a long way.”

Saban, a six-time national champion as a head coach, said his players and assistant coaches have maintained contact during the pandemic thanks to Zoom meetings.

“They’ve been great,” he said. “Maybe the whole idea that there’s not a whole lot else you can do because of social distancing, people trying to stay at home as much as possible, all the other sort of health parameters that we’ve been given. … Maybe this is something they look forward to, because there’s not a whole lot to do.

“I think being able to stay focused on what you can control right now rather than getting bored or sort of losing focus because of this circumstance — you either control the circumstance, or the circumstance controls you. So we’re trying to control the circumstance the best we can.”

Alabama finished 11-2 and ranked No. 8 in the nation last season after beating Michigan 35-16 in the Citrus Bowl. The Crimson Tide failed to reach the national championship game for the first time in five years.