Paul Finebaum on Kalen DeBoer's recruiting success: 'It almost feels like Nick Saban is running the ship again'

Not only has over half of Alabama’s recruiting class in 2026 committed in the month of June but have done so in the past two weeks since June 17th. That, to Paul Finebaum, is proof of Kalen DeBoer finding his footing down in T-Town.

Finebaum considered the cause of all of these recent commitments to the Crimson Tide while on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday. He thinks a lot of it is DeBoer having his program set, both with his staff and roster, now that he’s been on the job for almost a year and a half now in Tuscaloosa.

“I think, overall, Kalen DeBoer, with the addition of Ryan Grubb and finally the staff a little bit more to his liking, has brought continuity and that’s evidenced by him retaining his players in the spring, which I think is a very big deal for that purpose, and I think it’s oozing over to recruiting,” Finebaum thought.

With that, nine recruits have committed to them so far this month with eight doing so in the last fourteen days. That kind of recruiting run is something reminded Finebaum of what Alabama’s former coach used to do on the trail, which is saying a lot considering some of the early concerns about DeBoer in that aspect as a coach.

“Quite frankly, this is one of the great recruiting runs we’ve seen in some years. It almost feels like Nick Saban is running the ship again when it comes to recruiting because this is vintage Alabama recruiting,” said Finebaum. “I think when we saw this transition two and a half years ago, I think a lot of people doubted Alabama could come back to this particular moment in time. But it is here and I think it bodes extremely well for Alabama in the future.”

14 players are currently committed to Alabama as part of what’s right now the No. 7 class per On3’s 2026 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings. It’s made up of nine who have joined in the past 30 days in IOL Samuelu Utu committing on June 1st, QB Jett Thomalla and DL JJ Finch committing the week prior, and, since last week, commitments coming from RBs Javari Barnett and Ezavier Crowell, LBs Zay Hall and LB Xavier Griffin, S Rihyael Kelley, and TE Mack Sutter. That’s a pair of five-stars in the Top-35 in Griffin and Crowell, a trio of four-stars in the Top-215 in Sutter, Thomalla, and Utu, and then three-stars with Finch, Barnett, Kelley, and Hall. All those ratings are per On3’s 2026 Industry Ranking.

This is the kind of run that some, like Finebaum as well as On3’s Ari Wasserman, has been looking for from Alabama. High school recruiting doesn’t have the emphasis on it that it used with the portal but, nonetheless, this is a stretch that could be a reminder to people of what it is to be at Alabama over anywhere else in collegiate football.

“I think this is the most important thing – and I have a feeling, to the rest of college football, this is a very annoying and irritating signal because, you know, based on what the new transfer from Boston College to FSU said last week and many others have said before him? Nick Saban may be gone but Alabama is still one of the great standards of all time in college football and I think a lot of people forgot that, especially younger people who only knew the Nick Saban era,” said Finebaum. “Even during other coaching terms, and I’m preaching to the choir here, Alabama never got hung up on the record. They knew they were Alabama and it upset a lot of people, it came off as arrogant and cocky but it has always been able to be backed up over the course of history. There’s a reason why there’s so many statues outside Bryant-Denny Stadium for coaches who have won national championships.”

“While recruiting is not the final arbiter in college football anymore, and we all know that and we all talk about that every day, it is still an incredibly important sign,” Finebaum said. “What I’m interested in, and I will leave it to the recruiting experts because I’m not one either, is, if Alabama is doing this well, it’s at the expense of who? Because Alabama has been losing these battles over the last year or two. Not all of them but they were losing some of them. Right now, it looks like they’re winning almost all of them.”

Alabama still has more to add to this class coming out of June and over the course of the next few months going into National Signing Day. Still, it’s a statement currently being made by Alabama ahead of DeBoer’s second season on the field with the Tide.