Alabama’s unexpected competition for 4-star TE Malik Howard has become a real threat

Kalen DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan had enough competition for 2027 four-star tight end Malik Howard on the recruiting trail. Indiana, Miami, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt are already in the mix, but suddenly, after a trip to Eugene, the Oregon Ducks might be the biggest threat. 

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Oak Ridge, Tennessee, product is the 216th-ranked player and 11th-ranked tight end in the country according to 247Sports Composite, and he may still be on the rise. He has an official visit lined up to Alabama on May 29, along with trips to Tennessee and Notre Dame on the docket, but after entering the mix a month ago, Dan Lanning has made up tremendous ground. 

Coming out of his visit to Oregon, Howard told Chad Simmons of Rivals, “If they keep recruiting me the way they are right now, I don’t think they’re too late.”

Dan Lanning may have thrust Oregon to the front of the line for Malik Howard

Alabama offered Howard on February 14, 2025, a solid 14 months before Oregon. But with the Ducks’ massive NIL warchest and Lanning’s staff’s recent success developing tight ends, it’s not a surprise that they’ve been able to make up ground so quickly. It also doesn’t help Alabama that during that lengthy recruitment process, the Tide have changed their tight ends coach. 

Nick Sheridan served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator in 2024 when Ryan Grubb was calling plays for the Seattle Seahawks. After Grubb returned in 2025, Sheridan resumed his post as quarterbacks coach for the Tide. This offseason, however, Pat Fitzgerald, the newly appointed head coach at Michigan State, pried Sheridan away, hiring him as the Spartans’ offensive coordinator. 

With Sheridan’s departure, DeBoer elevated tight ends coach Bryan Ellis to quarterbacks coach and brought in Richard Owens from Louisville, where he coached the offensive line. Ellis is still on the staff to remain involved in Alabama’s pursuit of Howard, but staff changes can make any recruitment a bit more tenuous, though Ellis’s promotion didn’t cost the Tide 5-star quarterback Elijah Haven. 

Alabama’s tight end pursuit could telegraph a move towards heavier personnel

Grubb runs his pass-first offense primarily out of 11-personnel. Yet, tight ends have been a priority for Alabama on the recruiting trail. The Tide added Kaleb Edwards in the 2025 class, then signed Mack Sutter in 2026, both top 10 players at the position and top 150-recruits in the country. 

Howard isn’t quite on that level, but he could finish there, and he’s not the only tight end the Tide has pursued in the 2027 class. DeBoer and Morgan already have a commitment from composite four-star Colt Lumpris, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound New Jersey native. Lumpris, though, is on flip-watch with official visit season getting underway.

The continued pursuit of tight ends, along with hiring Owens, a former offensive line coach, to replace Ellis, both appear to be signals that Alabama is interested in playing more heavy personnel. That would make sense after a season in which the Tide ranked 132nd in the country in rushing success rate. 

If they wanted to drastically swing the pendulum in that direction, DeBoer and Morgan could have done it in the Transfer Portal. And while they added Josh Ford from Oklahoma State to complement Edwards and Sutter, that may not have been enough to fully embrace that philosophy. Still, even a slight uptick would be a good thing for a rebuilt offensive line with serious question marks and a first-year starting QB. 

Adding a commitment from Howard would continue that trend, but Oregon seems to be pushing hard, and that won’t make it easy to stand out in an already crowded recruitment.

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