Former Alabama football players back Kalen DeBoer’s recruiting, roster-building strategy

Oct 19, 2024; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer looks on before a game against the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

AJ McCarron and Trent Richardson appear to be fans of Kalen DeBoer’s current recruiting and roster-building strategy.

DeBoer has made it clear he wants his staff to focus on retention and development over paying a lot of money to unproven talent. McCarron and Richardson, who both played for the Crimson Tide in college, approve of this approach.

“He told you what the plan was,” McCarron said on “The Dynasty Podcast.” “I think in this day and age, if you can retain guys and create a culture and build a culture and make it to where it feels like it’s old school a little bit, like while we were playing, I think that’s the route to go.”

Richardson feels a focus on retention is an approach that the NFL and Nick Saban have shown works.

“Nick had his guys, and he got what he wanted,” Richardson said. “He knew what he needed for his team and for his program, and that’s the next year, right? But when you look at it, how it turned out, like the way he developed guys, and I think that’s what coach trying to do. He’s trying to develop guys; he’s trying to contain his roster, which I get, and like AJ said, if you got an NFL team, you go look at the teams that’s winning Super Bowls over the last few years. I mean over the last 15 to 20 years, right? You got the Patriots going almost every year or every other year when Tom Brady was there and built with (Bill) Belichick. Now you got Kansas City, right? Seattle went a few times. And if you can contain that roster and it can be everybody on one page like AJ just said, like, man, I’m telling you, man, it is different. And I said this once before, and I heard this from Christian Jones. When have we ever let somebody outside the building dictate what we got going on in here?”

Time will be the true measurement of whether this strategy works for DeBoer and company.