Back in 2011, Old Dominion head coach Bobby Wilder viewed Twitter as a social media outlet that was capable of doing more harm than good for his players, so he issued a team-wide ban. The ban came after Wilder learned that a few of his players were struggling academically, yet had time to tweet more than 100 times a day.
According to the Pilot Online, the ban was believed to be the most restrictive among FBS programs, and the message was clear; if you can't live without Twitter, than ODU isn't the right place for you. Back in 2012, Scott wrote about how he believed this was not the best way to prepare the ODU players for the "real world".
Over the past four years a lot has changed for Wilder, who has recently created an Instagram account for himself, full of some really good motivational ODU football material.
"He's been afraid of social media for a long time, for our kids more than anything else," offensive coordinator Brian Scott said. "They're young guys. He's always been protective of our kids. I never thought he'd do something like Instagram. I nearly fell over when he told us."
Apparently, in the last few weeks, a few Monarch players have begun tweeting, and although a date hasn't been set in stone, Wilder has told outlets that he is easing off the ban.
For now though, Wilder says he'll stick to Instagram and stay away from Twitter because it's more his speed.
"There's very little response or interaction with Instagram. It's not like Twitter. One thing you don't want to do on Twitter is go without responding to a potential recruit, which means you need to be on it all the time." He told the Pilot Online.
"I can't do that. Most of the Power 5 conference coaches on Twitter don't do it themselves. They have a staff of people who run it. My staff is busy enough."