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Coach Jim Boylen really doesn't care all that much about what Ashton Kutcher is thinking, what Taylor Swift is having for lunch or even which online imposter Shaquille O'Neal is exposing.
But he does care about his Utah Utes.
That's why he's among the growing legion of college coaches who have embraced Twitter, the popular online networking service that allows users to "follow" one another using short messages -- no more than 140 characters -- posted to the site.
He even does it himself, instead of having public relations staff take care of it for him.
While Boylen (@JimBoylen)might not fit the stereotypical image of a teenager breathlessly awaiting the banal musings of celebrity Twitterers, he has recognized ways in which he believes the service can help generate interest in the program he's rebuilding.
"It's another way to communicate," Boylen said, "and another way to reach out to our fans and let people know what we're doing."
It doesn't hurt, either, that the NCAA has approved communicating with potential recruits through Twitter (and Facebook, for that matter), effectively providing an end run around its ban on text-messaging prospects.
Mostly, though, it's a useful tool in making fans feel connected to the coach and his program by hearing from him directly.
Football coach Kyle Whittingham (@KyleWhittingham) has been doing it even longer than Boylen.
"It's not so much an opportunity to 'sell' your college program," recruiting consultant Dan Tudor advises coaches in his online newsletter Selling for Coaches. "Rather, it is an opportunity to show recruits who you are at your core: As a coach, as a parent, as a friend, as a leader. ... It's a chance for you to peel back the curtain 140 characters at a time."
Boylen has abided.
For example, shortly after joining the service recently, Boylen posted notes (known as "tweets") congratulating the university's baseball team for its Mountain West Conference tournament title, describing his family vacation to San Diego -- "had a great time at SeaWorld" -- and alerting fans to an upcoming appearance at an alumni association event in California.
He needs to be careful, though.
While a few coaches have amassed vast audiences on Twitter -- Kentucky's John Calipari had an astounding 300,395 followers as of Monday, for example, while Indiana's Tom Crean had 8,356 -- others have found trouble.
Football coach Lane Kiffin of Tennessee recently made the mistake of using the name of an incoming recruit on his public Twitter page, which is illegal under NCAA rules and forced the Volunteers to report Kiffin for a minor violation.
O'Neal had to launch a high-profile campaign last year to debunk someone who had been impersonating him with clever posts on the site, much as somebody has set up a page to mock Brigham Young football coach Bronco Mendenhall, imagining what he would say "if he had a Twitter account" (naturally, the faux Mendenhall "follows" Whittingham).
However, the NCAA does allow coaches to communicate with recruits on Twitter, using its direct messaging feature, which effectively functions as e-mail in that only the two people communicating can see the correspondence.
And since many users have their Twitter accounts tied to their mobile phones, as Tudor points out, it's possible that recruits will be able to communicate with Twittering coaches "back and forth like they did in the good ol' days," before the NCAA banned text-messaging as overly costly and intrusive.
"I haven't used that yet," Boylen said. "I'm still learning how to use it, and I'm just going to grow with it."
Well, if he needs a role model, he need not look far.
Colorado State's Tim Miles has only a few hundred followers so far -- Boylen had 344 himself Monday morning, compared with 706 for Whittingham -- but posts with a zeal that even Calipari and Crean strain to match.
Not only does he post frequently, but he has the online shorthand down cold and even posts personal photos to mix in between jabs at his golfing buddies and good-natured dating offers for his sister.
His "tweets" clearly reflect his famously light-hearted personality.
"I've seen some of the other guys who just talk about their program or what's going on that day," Miles said. "I know if I was fan or a recruit, that would get really boring to me. We just try to talk about what's fun and exciting, and if there's nothing fun or exciting that day, we don't Twitter."
Tudor said he worked personally just this week with the entire athletic department at Utah, and expects that coaches soon will "stampede" to Twitter for the recruiting help it can offer -- though Miles said that's only a minor attraction for him.
So far, Boylen, Miles and TCU's Jim Christian are the only men's basketball coaches in the nine-team Mountain West Conference that can be found on the site, along with football coaches Steve Fairchild of CSU, Mike Locksley of New Mexico and Dave Christensen of Wyoming -- they're pretty clearly just getting used to the concept -- in addition to Whittingham.
Surely, though, others will soon see the same benefits that they do.
"I think it's an evolving technology that will help us interact with our fan base and our recruiting base and can be a real positive," Boylen said.
It's a big week for us. Our high school elite camp is this Wednesday. We'll have several talented players here from all around the country.
About 4 p.m., Monday
New Orleans is a quality organization that is good at developing players. I'm thankful Luke will get an opportunity to prove himself there.
9:22 a.m., Monday
talked to several teams last night who wanted Luke to commit to their summer league program, including the GM of the Hornets.
9:16 a.m., Monday
I'm excited about Luke Nevill getting a chance with New Orleans. They have liked him all year.
9:10 a.m., Monday
The guys who really improve are the ones who commit themselves to getting better all year round, no matter where they are.
11:50 a.m., Wednesday
It's easy. Just visit twitter.com and set up a free account. You can create your own profile, post messages and search for others to "follow," such as University of Utah coaches Kyle Whittingham (@KyleWhittingham) and Jim Boylen (@JimBoylen).
Some other coaches on Twitter: John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari), Tim Miles (@CoachMiles), Lane Kiffin (@LaneKiffinUT), Tom Crean (@TomCrean), Steve Fairchild (@CoachFairchild), Mike Locksley (@Coachlocks), Dave Christensen (@Cowboysfootball)
