Kalen DeBoer is a recruiting magician.
The Alabama Crimson Tide’s transfer portal exodus and 2025 college football recruiting class were in disarray when Nick Saban retired. During DeBoer’s tenure with the Washington Huskies, the first-year Alabama head coach never had better than the 28th-ranked recruiting class during his short tenure in the Pacific Northwest.
After some major bumps in the road early, most notably losing star wide receiver Isaiah Bond to the Texas Longhorns and do-it-all safety Caleb Downs to the Ohio State Buckeyes, who AL.com’s Nick Alvarez called “one of the best freshmen in Alabama history,” DeBoer has not only righted the ship, he now has a top three 2025 recruiting class in ESPN’s latest rankings. And if we go by 247Sports’ composite rankings, it’s top two!
DeBoer and his staff have 12 commitments from the ESPN 300, led by Elite 11 MVP, four-star quarterback Keelon Russell, and four-star linebacker Darrell Johnson.
“Losing highly touted 2024 QB Julian Sayin during the staff transition was a tough blow,” writes ESPN’s Craig Haubert. “But Kalen DeBoer was able to flip Russell from SMU and as a player that reminds us of a right-handed Michael Penix with excellent speed, it seems like a natural fit and big add at the position. Landing one of the state’s top prospects, Smith, was a key win. He’s a lengthy, explosive player who could contribute at wide receiver but ultimately projects to defense, where he can be a versatile talent who makes plays in space. He also showed the ability to get after the quarterback (11 sacks) as a junior.”
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ESPN only has the Ohio State Buckeyes and Georgia Bulldogs recruiting classes ranked ahead of the Tide. 247Sports has Alabama and Georgia flipped.
DeBoer and his staff have continually climbed the 2025 recruiting class rankings, moving up three spots in ESPN’s latest version.
The first-year head coach is also finding his way with this year’s team. He’s loving quarterback Jalen Milroe’s leadership and work ethic, and he notes that the offensive line is the most improved unit, which it has to be given it allowed a school-record 48 sacks in 2023.
Other SEC teams in ESPN’s latest 2025 recruiting class rankings:
No. 2: Georgia Bulldogs (as previously mentioned)
No. 5: Auburn Tigers
No. 6: Texas A&M Aggies
No. 7: Oklahoma Sooners
No. 9: LSU Tigers
No. 11: Tennessee Volunteers
No. 14: Mississippi State Bulldogs
No. 17: Texas Longhorns
Nick who? We kid. We kid.
Author(s)
Matt Graham covers the SEC for The Sporting News. He’s been covering college football, the NFL, NBA, the Olympics, and MLB for almost 20 years for NBC Sports, Yahoo Sports, and USA TODAY Sports, where he also co-founded For The Win.
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