Kalen DeBoer took the Nick Saban legacy into his hands in the 2024 season. He did what he could with it, managing a program that suffered from high attrition and a new era under DeBoer. It wasn’t quite easy. Yet he managed to pull off a 9-4 season at the end of it. Not quite up to the Saban standards but quite decent considering everything.

However, in his second season, expectations will be high. Because Alabama is a place where ‘decent’ doesn’t quite cut it. It demands nothing short of ‘remarkable,’ and when you have seen and won everything over the years, the expectations automatically rise to the roof. That doesn’t mean in any way that Kalen DeBoer isn’t bracing and preparing for the 2025 season, and here’s why.

Kalen DeBoer has one of the most talented classes in the 2025 season. They currently have three players rated 5-star on 247 Sports and have several 4-star prospects rated 95+. That itself tells you the job Kalen DeBoer is doing in recruitment. But his crown jewel is Keelon Russell, the 5-star, highly-touted QB who currently has a 100 rating at 247 sports. But the question is: what makes him so special?

SMI College football podcast hosts discussed how Keelon Russell could provide something to DeBoer that he will badly need in the upcoming season. “We’re hearing Keelon Russell at school; he’s enrolled, and he’s doing good things in the weight room. He’s coming in, working hard, and staying late. We’ve heard the reports about it as well, so I think this is a team that is led by a really strong leader. It has a good leader at the top; I think Russell looks very interesting, a young quarterback coming into the program.”. The 6’3″ and 175 lbs. QB is putting in extra hours at the gym. But why is the news so good for DeBoer?

Well, Keelon Russell has everything that a world-class QB needs. He has quite good decision-making abilities on the field and has garnered a 70.8% pass completion rate in his high school. Furthermore, he can attack all three levels of the field, balancing the risk and the reward consciously and making those calculated decisions. The only problem with his highly praised abilities was his lean build, which could be detrimental to his game. So, the news is quite welcome in that regard, as he is working hard in the weight department to iron out that flaw. Moving on, it seems there’s more good news for Kalen DeBoer.

A former SEC offensive lineman joins Kalen DeBoer’s Bama

Yes, it is none other than the addition of former SEC offensive lineman Jayden Hobson to their 2025 roster. The development came when Alabama announced the numbers for their NIL collective, and there he was among the names. He graduated from Tuscaloosa and played at the high school level there before moving to Mississippi State in the 2023 season.

Now, when Alabama landed him, he was not playing football at all in the 2024 season and had left South Alabama when he joined after his Mississippi State stint. He looks like a decent addition, as he stands at 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs around 295 lbs. This makes him a decent addition in the OL room, where he could provide depth to the OT spot. However, he is listed as a tight end on Alabama’s roster, so we could see him featured in both positions as a backup.

Alabama will begin its 2025 season with a game on the road against FSU, which may not look quite difficult considering FSU’s past-year performance. However, before that, they are gearing up for their spring games that will go till April 12. This will be an opportunity for players like Jayden Hobson to showcase their talent and potentially grab that starting place in Kalen DeBoer’s team.