In-state star 2025 defensive lineman continues to play musical chairs with Alabama and Auburn

It has been quite the recruitment for 2025 Saraland (Al.) High School defensive lineman Antonio Coleman. The talented defender is considered a consensus four-star recruit by every major recruiting platform, ranking as a near consensus top 200 recruit nationally, sitting as high as the No. 100 overall player and No. 14 defensive linemen by 247Sports. As you can imagine, Coleman has a ton of options on the table. The 6-2, 265-pound defensive tackle currently holds offers from Alabama , Texas , Miami, Notre Dame , Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee, Clemson, LSU, Auburn, Texas A&M, USC, Arkansas, Louisville, Northwestern and Houston among several others.

Despite such high interest, Coleman has known he wants to stay in his home state for some time now. There are just two major problems; there are a couple of prominent programs in the state of Alabama, and Coleman clearly has no idea which one he wants to choose. On Saturday, Coleman announced that he had flipped his commitment from Alabama to Auburn.

That is massive news for the Tigers, flipping a really gifted defensive lineman that the University of Alabama was clearly high on. The crazy part is that this was Coleman’s third flip overall and the second time that he had flipped from the Crimson Tide to Auburn. Yes, you read that correctly.

Back on September 11th of last year, Coleman made his first commitment. He opted for Alabama over that long list of offers, which is a very ordinary decision for a player who hails from the state. A few months later on December 22nd, Coleman took many by surprise, flipping from the Crimson Tide to Auburn. For those who don’t know the history of those two programs, they are major rivals with tons of hatred for the other.

That had to sting for Alabama, but as it turns out, Auburn wasn’t safe. Less than three months later, Coleman opted for another change of heart. On March 2nd, he once again committed to the Crimson Tide. Things could have ended there and been crazy enough. Coleman isn’t the first recruit to have a difficult time making a decision, but playing musical chairs between two programs that hated each other is a pretty unique circumstance.

Fast forward to today and we now have Coleman’s third flip overall, and second time he has flipped from Alabama to Auburn. There is a good argument that this is the most bizarre recruitment of all time, two programs clearly valuing Coleman extremely highly. On film, it is easy to see why. For powerhouse Saraland, Coleman has collected 131 total tackles, 42.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks over the last two seasons.

The craziest part of this whole saga is that it is still only July. We are still five months away from National Signing Day. Buckle up, folks.