SEC Unfiltered: Alabama is recruiting as if Nick Saban never left

Welcome to SEC Unfiltered, the USA TODAY NETWORK’S newsletter on SEC sports. Today, Knoxville News Sentinel columnist John Adams takes over.

The SEC can be very provincial when a coach from outside the conference joins the league.

If a coach succeeds at a high level elsewhere, SEC loyalists invariably will ask: “But can he do it in the SEC?”

If you recruited well outside the SEC, that’s no guarantee you will do the same in the nation’s most competitive conference. And if your offense worked out West that offers no assurance it will click in the SEC.

New Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer has won everywhere he has been, although “everywhere” doesn’t include the SEC. He won at Sioux Falls, Fresno State and Washington. His overall record is a stunning 104-12.

Not only has he won. He has won with a high-flying offense. Maybe, he will keep winning at Alabama, and the same offense that helped Washington reach the national championship game will continue to fly high. We will find out this fall.

But we’re already finding out something about Alabama’s coach. He can recruit. Never mind that the first signing date is about five months away. The Tide has 22 commitments and rank second only to Ohio State in the 247Sports Composite for the 2025 recruiting cycle.

The way DeBoer and his staff are recruiting, you would think Nick Saban was still running the football show in Tuscaloosa. Saban kept recruiting top-five classes on the way to six national championships with Alabama.

Now, this Northwesterner has swooped into Saban’s territory without missing a beat. He’s not just landing highly touted prospects from Alabama. He’s reeling in four-stars as though he never left the West coast.

Six of his commitments are from California. He also has a four-star quarterback commitment from Keelon Russell in Duncanville, Texas. And he has commitments from players in New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kansas.

So what if DeBoer has yet to win a game at Alabama? SEC rivals can’t be happy about his recruiting.

They had good reason to rejoice when Saban retired. He often made life miserable for everyone else in the league.

But their joy might be short-lived.