Alabama is not a Transfer Portal program. Kalen DeBoer and Courtney Morgan have made their philosophy clear since taking over in Tuscaloosa. Rather than paying a premium for veterans, they’re going to build through the high school ranks and have done so with three consecutive top-five classes.
Because the Tide aren’t spending big in the portal, which is the quickest way to plug holes and course correct when you hit a snag in roster construction, there is increased pressure on DeBoer and Morgan to get it right on the recruiting trail. So, anytime another recruiting powerhouse, especially one that’s proven to have deep pockets, comes sniffing around an Alabama commit, that’s going to set off alarms.
Right now, that’s exactly what Mario Cristobal and Miami are doing with 2027 three-star cornerback Nash Johnson III. The Powder Spring, Georgia native committed to the Tide in October, but on Monday, he posted a picture of a recruiting package from Cristobal and the Canes.
@CanesFootball @ZacEtheridge4 😤 pic.twitter.com/VaZBgTTXZl
— Nash levi Johnson lll (@NashLeviJohnson) February 9, 2026
Mario Cristobal upping his efforts to flip Nash Johnson III from his Alabama commitment
Johnson received an offer from Miami back in October, the day after he committed to the Crimson Tide. It was one of six announced offers that day, along with Georgia, North Carolina, Miami, Florida, Tulane, and Tennessee.
DeBoer and Morgan have been excellent at identifying talent early in the recruiting process and landing commitments from underrecruited players before other powerhouse programs get into the mix.
A perfect example of this is 2026 QB Jett Thomalla, whom DeBoer flipped from an Iowa State commitment when he was just a three-star. Then, throughout his senior season, Thomalla continued to rise up the recruiting rankings before ultimately reaching five-star status with multiple outlets as one of the top QBs in the class.
Johnson is still a three-star, but could easily be a late riser throughout the process. The important thing, though, for this early identification strategy to work, is that you have to hold onto those commitments as outside interest inevitably drives the price up.
That’s the risk of DeBoer’s entire team-building philosophy. Yes, high school recruiting is cheaper than the Transfer Portal, but the players you recruit want more for retention each year as outside programs drive the price. Those retention costs can prevent programs from making portal additions, and sometimes, when those young in-house players are ready to contribute, they transfer away anyway, leaving another program to reap the benefits of the years spent developing that player.
DeBoer is attempting to thread a needle with his strategy, and it requires his staff to turn away aggressive challenges like the one Miami appears to be mounting with Johnson. Ideally, without the price going up.