Kalen DeBoer is late to the party, and Nick Saban ain’t gonna like it. See, the Tide is having quite the season. After three massive games and an amazing win over Georgia, Kalen DeBoer and Co. quickly lost almost all of their momentum going into the Vandy clash. Losing to an unranked team was not a good look, and that, followed by a mercy win over South Carolina and another loss to the Vols, had fans asking for “DeBoer to resign”. Now, the team is finally back on track and DeBoer is doing quite well. Let’s be honest, they needed that bye-week desperately to sort the problems out with Jalen Milroe and the offense. And they did. However, there is still one area where Bama is still lagging.

See, on the national level, Bama is ranked 3rd in terms of 2025 recruitments. They have managed to snag around four 5-star commits and thirteen 4-star commits. While this might look good on the surface, there are a few problems. Back on 247Sports, Cooper Petagna raised a fair point when he mentioned, “How long can they kind of get away with not shopping in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia or the Southeast where everybody really kind of gets their groceries from if that makes sense.” If we just take Texas A&M as an example, the Aggies have managed to snag around 15 top players into their program from Texas alone.

This kind of begs the question as to when DeBoer is going to focus on recruiting from Alabama or maybe Georgia. See, early on, we knew that Kalen DeBoer and his recruiting strategy were big on in-state recruitments. However, over time, that has changed.

This added to the fact that the entire space is now filled with “NIL deals” and “pay for play” stuff, which could make DeBoer’s strategy of relying on the old ways kind of stagnant, and that is kind of a good thing as well. See, DeBoer does not have to recruit like Saban. With the era changing, systems change as well, and the entire NIL landscape has made it easy to grab top talents.

Tapping into it is not harmful whatsoever. Keep in mind fans had said that the entire Bama defense was done for when Caleb Downs went to the Buckeyes. What followed? Domani Jackson, Malachi Moore, DeVonta Smith, and Bray Hubbard onto the roster and a complete change of pace for the D-line. On that note, DeBoer is also well on his way to grabbing a flip from an SEC rival.

Taking one from Ole Miss

After that entire win over Georgia and making Kirby Smart pay for the embarrassment he put the Rebels through last year, no one could’ve possibly guessed that Lane Kiffin stands a chance at losing a commit to Bama.

See, 4-star CB Maison Dunn has been committed to the Rebels since May. However, that might change soon. There have been a lot of predictions that Dunn is going to flip his commitment and join the Tide and DeBoer. Adding this kid would mean grabbing the No.27 CB in the entire nation and the No.288 overall player in the entire recruiting class of 2025. We still have to wait and watch how this entire scene unfolds.

What’s up with Bama in Week 13? Well, they are traveling to play the Oklahoma Sooners (5-5), a team coming off a bye week after their Week 11 loss to Missouri (23-30). DeBoer must be aware of their threat still, as they would be playing for Bowl eligibility. Drop a game in these next two weeks, and Bama’s season would be over. Win both, and we may see them in the SEC Championship game.