The 2027 recruiting cycle has been a big adjustment for Alabama fans who are used to seeing the Crimson Tide dominate on the trail. Nick Saban was the best recruiter in college football history, and Kalen DeBoer has followed that up with back-to-back Top 5 classes in his first two cycles as the Tide's head coach.
But this is a different era of college football now. With the Transfer Portal and the price to retain your own talent always increasing, DeBoer told everyone a while back now that this would be a much smaller class for the Crimson Tide, and they weren't going to overspend on young talent in this cycle with so many young players on the current roster.
Alabama only has nine seniors on the 2026 team. They like where they sit with the players they have, and the top priority will be bringing back as many for 2027 as they can.
That doesn't lessen the sting for fans, though, who aren't used to seeing an Alabama recruiting class rank last in the SEC. It won't stay that way, with plenty of high-end targets remaining on Alabama's board.
But one of those top targets, who was thought to be a near lock to the Crimson Tide for quite some time, appears to be trending elsewhere now.
Rivals experts Steve Wiltfong and Chad Simmons logged predictions on Friday morning for 4-star DL Mitchell Turner, the No. 1 player in the state of Mississippi, to land with Ole Miss, per the Rivals Prediction Machine.
Alabama could be on the verge of losing 4-star DL Mitchell Turner to Ole Miss
Alabama was trending heavily for Turner coming out of his official visit to Tuscaloosa over the final weekend of May. The Crimson Tide has been on Turner for a while, and seemingly had a leg up on the competition thanks to their early belief in him, similarly to how things played out last year for Mississippi defensive lineman Nolan Wilson.
Alabama was the first Power Four program to offer Turner, something that was a big deal to him and his family. But the allure of staying home can be strong, and Ole Miss has undoubtedly given a significant financial offer to avoid losing the state's top player.
Alabama not getting a commitment out of Turner after his visit was always a bit concerning, but the Crimson Tide survived that time and time again during the 2026 cycle with top prospects such as Wilson, Cederian Morgan, EJ Crowell, among others.
Alabama doesn't have a ton of needs in this cycle, but optically, losing out on Turner would be a bad look with things going as poorly in this class as they have.
This is another example of just having to trust DeBoer and GM Courtney Morgan. They have a roster-building strategy that they are sticking to, regardless of how it looks to everyone else. Whether that's the right decision or not will be fleshed out in time.
Turner hasn't yet made his announcement and is expected to be in Starkville this weekend for a visit to Mississippi State. Wiltfong and Simmons' predictions could always change, and are more of a reflection of how things are currently trending.
DeBoer and his staff still have time to change the narrative, and there's obviously a long way to go until the early signing period in December. But missing out on Turner would certainly sting.
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