Signing Day 2025: Where Does Alabama Rank?
Published February 5, 2025 - 4:16 PM CST
National Signing Day isn’t what it used to be. Signing day used to be the day college football fans cemented their future. It used to be a second Christmas in early February to tie football fans over until the NFL draft. It was always a memorable day packed with suspense and memorable moments.
Do you remember the kid who faked his recruitment and signed with Cal, even though the Golden Bears had never offered him, much less heard of him? Remember when ESPN made a documentary about a young Tim Tebow, and he convinced Alabama fans that there was a chance he might commit to play for Mike Shula? That’s quite a what-if when you think about it. I remember counting down the days until Tim Tebow announced his college decision, only to be heartbroken by his decision to play at Florida.
With the recent addition of an early signing period in December, the ubiquity of the transfer portal, and more player mobility than ever before, National Signing Day has lost most of its luster. Many fans don’t even know when the day arrives until it’s written about in the media.
Still, National Signing Day carries some meaning today. For starters, there are always a few players remaining unsigned from December who make their intentions official. 5 star offensive tackle Ty Haywood officially picked Michigan over Alabama, which didn’t come as a surprise to many recruiting insiders. Either way, now we can call this officially a done deal. You see, once a recruit signs to play for a school he is committing to play for the University until he graduates. If he decides to transfer, which doesn’t happen often, he has to sit out for an entire year before he can play. Because of this, recruits rarely transfer before they graduate. locked in until the transfer portal window opens at the end of spring football practice.
Okay, so player mobility has made National Signing Day less important. Rather than a predetermination of future success, as it was ten years ago, National Signing Day is more of a midterm grade for a football coach and his program. Sign a good class? All is well. Keep grinding. Miss on several players and sign a bad class? It’s not a kiss of death, but you better get in that portal and fill some of your holes at the end of spring practice. Failure to do that, like Hugh Freeze failing to bring in a quarterback or Florida State bringing in mediocre players for 2024, can be an ominous sign.
So here are the top ten recruiting classes according to 247 sports:
Retrieved from 247 Sports
The most promising thing for Kalen DeBoer is his first full recruiting class at Alabama ranks #3 in the nation overall. With five-star players from all over the country, it looks like a Nick Saban recruiting class on paper. This was the biggest question mark about DeBoer when he took the Alabama job, and this class gets a solid A+. Alabama has not finished outside of the top three since Saban’s first recruiting class, and continuing to rake in elite recruits is the best way Alabama can continue to field one of the best rosters in college football.
Notably, DeBoer was able to land the #2 overall player in the nation, quarterback Keelon Russell, who figures to be the QB of the future at Alabama. Russell won a 6A state Championship in Texas and was named the top QB in the nation at the Elite 11 camp last summer.
For someone nicknamed Husky Harsin by his detractors, DeBoer has shown that he has what it takes to recruit at a high level and continue Alabama’s track record of bringing in top talent. If DeBoer can continue to recruit and retain elite players who are lured by the transfer portal, the pieces should be in place for Alabama to return to its place as the standard of college football.
