Following 4-star LB Kenneth Simon's flip from Alabama to Tennessee on Saturday, many Crimson Tide fans are ready to slam the panic button.
Simon's flip has dropped Alabama's 2027 class down to 63rd in the composite rankings with only eight commitments.
The last two summers, Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama staff have started slow, only to crank up the heat and go on recruiting runs that shot the class up inside the Top 5 of the composite. That's not going to happen this summer.
And that's not to say Alabama isn't going to land some more talented recruits in this cycle. They are. They are right in the thick of it for 5-stars Monshun Sales and Hayden Stepp, along with 4-stars such as Osani Gayles, Mitchell Turner, and Antwan Jackson, among others.
But this is going to be a smaller class. DeBoer said that a while back. The numbers were never going to allow Alabama to sign a Top 5 class again. Or Top 10. And, at this point, Top 25 might be pushing it.
That doesn't mean it's time to panic, though.
Kalen DeBoer and Courtney Morgan have a roster-building plan for Alabama they are sticking to
Why is Alabama signing such a small class? Because they have a ton of young talent they've added in the last two cycles, and the priority is going to be retaining that talent and supplementing in the Transfer Portal next offseason.
Alabama signed 21 high schoolers in the 2025 recruiting class, and 20 of them are still in Tuscaloosa heading into their second college seasons. Alabama added 44 more players in the 2026 class between the high school class (27) and the Transfer Portal (17).
The vast majority of the players Alabama added in the portal this past cycle have multiple seasons of eligibility remaining.
Even with scholarships expanding to 105, you're talking about 65 players between the last portal cycle and the last two high school recruiting classes. That's not to mention any third-year players who will be sticking around for a fourth season, either, or fourth-year players sticking around for a fifth.
There are only nine seniors on Alabama's roster. They'll lose a few more to early NFL Draft entry, and they'll have some portal attrition, too, but odds are that Alabama won't have more than 20-25 open roster spots this offseason. They aren't going to set aside all those spots for the high school class and leave no room in the portal, either.
Alabama has money to spend, but as Tide fans are well aware of, they aren't operating with the same budget as teams like Texas, Texas A&M, and Oregon, among others. They have a budget they have to stick to.
The way DeBoer and Tide GM Courtney Morgan have moved in this class should tell you that they are comfortable with the current roster. The mood around the program is that they hit a massive home run in the portal this offseason. Because of that, expect Alabama to continue being players in the portal in the coming cycles.
That might represent a slight philosophical change, but you have to realize that this is a different era of college football now.
Is Alabama going about roster-building the right way? The proof will be in the pudding with the results on the field this year and next. For now, it's a wait-and-see approach, and it's far too early to hit the panic button.
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