Kalen DeBoer has typically been a bit of a slow starter on the recruiting trail, but in each of his previous two offseasons with the Tide, he’s had strong finishes, constructing top-five classes each year. This cycle appears to be in line with that trend because while he’s landed the top quarterback in the country, Elijah Haven, DeBoer has just six commits after Kenneth Simon II joined the fray on Monday.
Simon, a Tennessee legacy and Brentwood, Tennessee native, chose the Tide over the Volunteers. It’s a significant win to pull a four-star recruit ranked 133rd in the nation out of a rival’s recruiting grounds, but the Simon addition is more important for Alabama because of the need he will fill on DeBoer’s defense.
Alabama was forced to dip into the portal to find an ILB replacement this offseason
Whether it's for Kane Wommack or if he finally leaves for a head coaching job after two offseasons of rumors and another defensive coordinator takes over, Alabama needed to replenish the inside linebacker position on the recruiting trail.
This offseason, the Tide lost 1,762 defensive snaps from its senior-laden linebacking corps of Deontae Lawson, Justin Jefferson, and Nikhai Hill-Green. Cayden Jones, QB Reese, and Luke Metz were the only other off-ball linebackers to appear in more than one game for Wommack last season, and that group combined for just 123 total defensive snaps across 10 combined games.
Rather than lean heavily on that inexperience, Alabama was able to prepare for those departures and quickly executed in the Transfer Portal, adding Caleb Woodson from Virginia Tech to take over at inside linebacker. Woodson is likely to be the green dot player for Wommack next season, while Jones, a junior, and Reese, a redshirt sophomore, will become full-time contributors for the first time.
Once Woodson, who is in his final year of eligibility, graduates, Reese and Jones will, at least theoretically, be back for another season and ready to take on even more responsibility. There is not, however, very much in the pipeline at off-ball linebacker behind that duo from the 2024 recruiting class, when they were both three-stars.
DeBoer and Courtney Morgan need to keep taking swings at ILB
In the subsequent two recruiting classes, Alabama Metz, Duke Johnson II, Abdual Sanders Jr., and Zay Hall. 2026 five-star Xavier Griffin is a hybrid linebacker who will likely play some off-ball and some on the edge. That’s a decent stockpile of talent at the position, and a few of those players may get some experience this season, but that group doesn’t provide much certainty, so continuing to add talent like Simon was paramount for DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan this offseason.
Linebacker is not one of the positions, like offensive line or quarterback, that requires a significant premium to acquire out of the transfer portal. There are typically off-ball linebackers to be had, and that price rarely gets driven up for those players.
Still, Alabama is primarily building through high school recruiting and solving problems in the portal. So, the fewer problems there are to solve, the more money DeBoer and Morgan will have to spend on upgrading those premium positions and winning battles for elite talent like Cam Coleman or Hollywood Smothers, who both got priced out of Tuscaloosa this offseason.
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