TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Nick Saban was in as good a mood Wednesday as you’ll ever find him.

Standing at the podium at Alabama, he opened his annual signing day news conference by joking about how much he had missed seeing the media in the past few weeks. And for a solid couple of minutes, he thanked everyone he could think of, including the team chaplain, professors and fans. He used uncharacteristic words like “pleased” and “outstanding” to describe the culmination of a lot of hard work.

In what’s become a tradition around Tuscaloosa, signing day felt more like Christmas Day for Saban, who signed a total of 20 four-star prospects to what ESPN ranked as the No. 2 recruiting class in the country.

But the thing that should put the biggest grin on Tide fans' faces is that even at his most content, Saban couldn’t help being himself. With the air of a child sitting atop a pile of presents and wondering why there weren't more, Saban said he wished there was another receiver and another defensive lineman they could have brought on board.

“You don’t get everything you want all the time,” he said.

That wasn’t a humblebrag.

That sound you hear is football coaches’ heads exploding from coast to coast.

The man with nine straight top-three recruiting classes actually complained about missing out on a prospect. You’ve got to be kidding.

But that’s where Saban is today, fresh off a late surge that saw him leap seven spots in the recruiting rankings on the final day. At 64 years old, he simply shows no signs of slowing down.

Nothing better illustrates that than what we saw come out on social media in the past few weeks. Yeah, we all got a kick out of seeing Saban play Pop-A-Shot, and it was hilarious to see him do the Dab and the Wobble. But did you get the inside joke? Did you bother looking at the reaction among recruits? They ate it up.

Saban dabbed for Mack Wilson, played Pop-A-Shot with Scott Lashley and did the Wobble with Jared Mayden. All three were uncommitted at the time, and all three signed their letters of intent with Alabama come Wednesday afternoon.

“Coach is going to be Coach,” said early enrollee QB Jalen Hurts. “He’s going to do the things he does and be himself.”

And that means winning at all costs. If he has to dance and play games to do it, then so be it.

Anyone else would get fat on five national championships and more blue-chip recruits than you can count, but Saban isn’t resting on his laurels.

More often than not, you’ll see coaches show their age on the recruiting trail. Their interest wanes. They start to compromise, doing less and delegating more. They tire of the whole chase -- the trips across the country to high schools far and wide and in the middle of nowhere; the way they must subvert their authority and kowtow to teenagers’ egos; the constant pressure to stay relevant in an ever-changing landscape.

You reach a certain point and no longer want to climb a tree or dab or do whatever else is popular. You don’t care what’s popular, and the only one you feel the need to impress is your spouse, who signed a letter of intent decades ago and hasn’t fallen for your sales tricks since. You are what you are and your résumé should be enough.

But it’s not. Just look at Steve Spurrier and Mack Brown. In 2009, Brown had Texas at No. 3 in the class rankings. Four years later, Texas had slipped to 16 and Brown resigned that December. And Spurrier made a splash in 2011 with the top overall recruit, Jadeveon Clowney. But last year’s class didn’t feature a single player in the top 100, and Spurrier walked away six games into the season.

You see, Saban is a more a part of that crop of coaches than the 40-somethings like Dabo Swinney who are making their names elsewhere. Colleagues Saban admired -- Spurrier, Brown, Gary Pinkel, Frank Beamer -- are in the process of figuring out retirement. Meanwhile, Saban has figured out how to adapt on and off the field and how to do more than flash his championship rings and let that be enough.

He is, without a doubt, the best recruiter in the modern era. And as much as that accomplishment is about his tireless work ethic, it’s also a testament to his process.

Kirk Doll, who coached under Saban at LSU from 2002-03, told me something a few years ago that stuck with me.

“He’s going to know everything about that recruit,” Doll said, “but he’s also going to know all the different things that come into play that affect that young man’s mind, whether that be the parents, the high school coach, maybe somebody in the street that has that young man’s ear, whether that’s the security guard at the school, a history teacher or maybe some guy at the park and rec. There’s somebody that young man’s going to listen to.

“From that point, he can learn about him and figure out what his major interests are other than the football part of it or the school part of it. What makes a young person tick, so to speak.”

Saban is the master of that. With one recruit, he’s all business. With another, he’ll cut up and joke. He may not have a Twitter account himself, but he’s aware of how to play the social media game.

Nothing -- on the field or off it -- is passing him by.

It was fun to debate whether Saban was ready to hang it up after beating Clemson last month, and the question of how much gas was left in the tank felt like a valid one. But if we’ve learned anything since then, it’s that he’s not showing his age, he’s not slowing down, and he’s not falling behind the times.

At the end of the day, he still feels like there’s more to do, one more recruit to win over and one more game to win. And however that has to be done, he’ll do it.