Greg Byrne reached out to four former players after Nick Saban retired

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne had to move quickly to find a replacement for Nick Saban this past January but in the 49 hour period it took to hire Kalen DeBoer, Byrne took the time to reach out to a few former players to gain some insight.

In a report from ESPN’s Chris Low, Byrne revealed that he spoke with former Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram, wide receiver DeVonta Smith and quarterbacks Joe Namath and Jalen Hurts to gain a little more insight.

“Not to dicuss candidates, but it was more, ‘What do you think if you were in my shoes?'”, Byrne said to ESPN. “Because they may have had a piece of infoprmation I hadn’t thought about, which is good.”

In just a few short hours later, DeBoer would be tasked with following up the greatest of all-time and is now leading Alabama through spring practice as it makes early preparations for the new era of football in Tuscaloosa.