You cannot win them all. That being said, missing out on Monshun Sales does not make it hurt any less. While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, the five-star wide receiver from Indianapolis chose the home-state Indiana Hoosiers over the Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers, Ohio State Buckeyes, and Texas Longhorns. In recent weeks, it felt like Indiana and Texas moved ahead of Alabama for him.
Seeing Sales wear another uniform of crimson and white must make Alabama fans feel a certain way.
BREAKING: Five-Star Plus+ WR Monshun Sales has Committed to Indiana, he tells me for @Rivals
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 17, 2026
The 6’5 210 WR chose the Hoosiers over Alabama, Texas, LSU, and Ohio State
Sales becomes the highest-ranked recruit to commit to Indiana in program historyhttps://t.co/hYn4pHe2ca pic.twitter.com/d9edUSWL1E
Now that Sales is heading to Bloomington, Kalen DeBoer and the rest of his staff must pivot to find the right receiver to help accentuate their 2027 recruiting class. They do have a well-thought-of five-star in Osani Gayles, but Sales would have taken this class over the top. In the end, this does feel like a bidding war, one that Alabama was never going to win. Indiana wanted Sales more than Texas did.
This is the unfortunate reality of the Alabama program these days with DeBoer leading the charge.
Kalen DeBoer is not going to cave to any star recruit during the process
Let's be real. While one player can make a huge difference on the field, recruiting is a numbers game. Honestly, it is a numbers game in more ways than one. Just because a player has five stars next to their name does not guarantee they will live up to the hype in college or beyond. Having more quality bites at the apple is how programs grow into an Alabama over time. NIL is also a major factor of late.
Now that we are fully in year five of the wonderful world of NIL, two SEC juggernauts have lost their fastball a bit in recruitment. Those would be Alabama and Georgia. While Alabama and Georgia will compensate players already on the roster for their names, images, and likenesses, they have not been as quick to the pay-for-play narrative as others. Sales had his agents up there with him for this...
No, it was not an easy decision for him. Sales may have grown up an Alabama fan, but he lives in the same state as the defending national champions in Indiana. Programs like LSU, Ohio State, and Texas are regular power players in recruitment. Those three have shown at times to spend as Indiana will with Curt Cignetti at the helm of the program. It is what it is, but it does put more pressure on DeBoer.
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To tie a bow on this, DeBoer is going to have to continue winning with his kind of guys: Players who easily buy into his vision of what he wants Alabama to become. You can win a lot of games with DeBoer's kind of guys. However, Alabama's kind of guys used to be five-stars from all over the country like Sales. At this juncture, it is starting to look more like an amplified version of Washington.
While it could serve DeBoer to not upset the apple cart, Sales' decision should be an inflecting point.
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