How WIll New Tide Recruit?

Alabama has officially introduced the 28th head coach in program history. Coach Kalen DeBoer came down from the Washington Huskies to take over for seven-time national championship head coach Nick Saban.

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Coach DeBoer will have a daunting task ahead of him very quickly. With the retirement of Saban, the transfer portal has opened up for a 30-day window. The Crimson Tide have already seen some players take advantage, with Isaiah Bond, Dezz Ricks, and Antonio Kite entering the portal since Coach Saban's retirement.

Not only does Coach DeBoer have to recruit the current Crimson Tide commits and recruits for 2025 and beyond, but he also has to re-recruit the current Alabama roster.

In the era of NIL and the transfer portal, coaches have to recruit their roster just as much as they have to recruit from high school and other players in the transfer portal.

Coach DeBoer will have to do the same thing. How will he and his staff recruit the current Crimson Tide roster?

Courtney Morgan will be vital to that process. During his media availability, Coach DeBoer said Morgan had the phone numbers of several Alabama players and parents. He also said that Morgan is working to keep players at Alabama.

Who is Courtney Morgan? And why did he come from Seattle, Washington to Tuscaloosa, Alabama with Coach Kalen DeBoer?

Courtney Morgan is a general manager at the college level. This is an incredibly uncommon role, so what does it mean?

Morgan was with the Michigan Wolverines in 2021 when they made their first College Football Playoff. Three of the players he recruited made vital contributions to Michigan's national title win in 2023.

He was with Washington and Coach DeBoer in 2023 in the same general manager position. One of DeBoer's first hires when he got to Washington was Morgan.

What can Morgan do to help Alabama's recruiting?

According to head coach DeBoer, he already had phone numbers and contacts of Alabama players and parents, and he has been talking to them all day to convince them to stay in Tuscaloosa.

That's recruiting in the modern era. DeBoer and Morgan are recruiting the current roster before they can't turn their attention to staff construction and recruiting from high school.

Coach DeBoer isn't going to neglect high school recruiting, though. He doesn't have any SEC ties, but in media availability, he said his staff would have Washington ties and SEC ties.

Coach DeBoer understands recruiting in the SEC can be a war at times.

For fans who are concerned about his lack of southern reach, Coach DeBoer said, "I wasn't a West Coast guy until I got there either."

Coach DeBoer spent four years on the West Coast, where he developed sort of a pipeline in recruiting from the California schools. Morgan also has a lot of connections to those schools.

Coach DeBoer has not named any people on his staff, but he lost secondary coach Travaris Robinson to Georgia, so he will have to find someone new to be a recruiter from the SEC.