It was a big day for Alabama football, losing a three-star athlete and gaining a four-star defensive end in 2020. What do these moves mean?
The recruiting trail is always hot in the summer. When coaches can’t be with their team, they spend more time trying to recruit young players to their school. The new group of seniors becomes the focus, and schools try their best to land commitments from top players before National Signing Day. This has been happening for Alabama football, and a lot has changed for the Tide.
Alabama had a big day for many reasons recently. In one 24-hour period, they managed to lose three-star athlete De’Rickey Wright and land four-star defensive end Will Anderson. With the pair of moves, Alabama still has the second-best recruiting class behind the Clemson Tigers.
Losing Wright will be tough more because of the position of need. Wright plays all over the field in high school, but he would likely be a safety with the Tide. Alabama still has four defensive backs in the 2020 recruiting class, but this will be a huge position of need for the team.
The Tide are already somewhat thin in the secondary, and they will likely lose anywhere from three to four starters in their nickel package to the NFL Draft next year. Most are upperclassmen, but Xavier McKinney might declare as well if he has a great season. The only player guaranteed to stay is the underclassman Patrick Surtain II.
Wright isn’t a huge loss as long as the other safeties in the class live up to the hype. The truth is that Alabama won’t know how rough the secondary situation is on the roster until the signing period is over. On the optimistic side, they still have plenty of time to land another safety. Wright is a talented player, but he certainly isn’t the first de-commit in Alabama football history. The Tide will overcome this loss like they have every other player who has changed their mind about college.
In brighter news, the Tide managed to land Anderson. He is one of the top players in the state of Georgia, and he will now be joining the Tide’s elite class on the defensive line. They now have four players set to play defensive tackle or end, and they also have a couple of prospects at outside linebacker. If they choose to sign more line talent, they could add depth to a stacked class.
With the loss of Wright, I could see the Tide turn their focus more towards other defensive backs. That has always been a position of need in this recruiting class, and the loss of Wright makes the need more severe.
However, they still have time to figure this out. With Wright being a three-star, he was likely going to have to wait until his junior or possibly even senior year. If Saban thinks he can land a top safety in the 2021 class, he can wait until next year. Freshmen rarely start, and three-stars have an up-hill battle.