'This is Their Team': Alabama Baseball Back to Winning in Camo Hats

The Crimson Tide has returned to a wardrobe staple from its most memorable recent postseason.

From left to right: Garrett Staton (27), Bryce Fowler (9) and Will Hodo (18). | Alabama Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— There was plenty that was memorable about the Alabama baseball 2023 postseason run, including hosting a regional for the first time in the better part of two decades (since 2006). Through it all, one thing was constant: camouflage hats.

They were worn in the fall of 2023 leading up to Rob Vaughn's first season as coach, but did not make another mark last season nor resurface in the Tallahassee Regional last summer. Against Missouri at home this past weekend, the No. 18 Crimson Tide dusted the hats off again and wore them all series.

"It was the one in my locker yesterday, and I had no idea why it was there, but I was like, 'Alright, sure, let's wear it,'" Vaughn said last Friday after game two of the series, a 7-3 Alabama win. "I know the background behind it, but I didn't know we were making the move. But I'm in."

Vaughn texted with his players prior to that contest asking about which hat the team was going to wear after the camo lids resurfaced the night before. Alabama (35-10, 12-9 SEC) is 3-0 in digital camouflage during the 2025 season. The head coach said that, while the games have big implications, baseball is still about having fun.

"It's still a kid's game," Vaughn said Friday. "We get to come out together for five or six hours a day and go play baseball. I think, too many times, us as coaches lose sight of that. For me, this is their team, man. I've told you guys that a thousand times... they're taking us as coaches along for the ride."

Senior reliever Braylon Myers, who was on that 2023 team as a sophomore, said he was not asked by any of his younger teammates about why exactly the team shifted to these specific alternate hats. He doesn't believe it's any kind of mystery.

"I think everybody knows," Myers said after recording a save against the Tigers, his second of the season.

The Crimson Tide had lost its last three SEC series before bringing the hats back and faces No. 15 Vanderbilt on the road this weekend. Last Friday's game was the series clincher against Missouri, the first SEC series triumph for Alabama in the month of April.

Vaughn is about people and about culture, and though the heyday of the hats precedes his arrival in Tuscaloosa (albeit not by much), he's more than willing to join in on what his players want to do—with an understandable caveat.

"Within reason," Vaughn said, "what they want to do, I'll ride with."