Everyone knows that Alabama has not been the same program since Nick Saban left. They couldn’t be— when the greatest coach of all time leaves your program, you are not going to just keep trucking on like nothing at all happened. The Tide ended up hiring a guy that the Aggies had taken a long look at in Kalen DeBoer, and his first two years have been tumultuous, if not unsuccessful.
The warning signs have been there for DeBoer right there from the beginning for Tide fans, of course. The fact that he failed to win ten games in his first season, even with an extremely talented roster, and lost several very winnable games— including a shocker to Oklahoma that knocked the Tide out of contention for the conference crown— enraged the Alabama faithful, and his embarrassing exit from last year’s playoff was roundly derided.
It takes a while to fall all the way off when you are at a place like Alabama, but it certainly seems like they may be trending further downwards than many anticipated. That’s good news for the Aggies on one clear front: they have to travel to Tuscaloosa this year for a game. But it goes beyond that: as Alabama falls, there’s an opportunity for the Aggies to rise up and take their place.
Texas A&M has opportunity to claim a top spot in SEC pecking order with Alabama’s quick fall
There’s nothing that better demonstrates the falloff from the Tide than taking a look at the latest recruiting rankings. Alabama, unbelievably, is at the very bottom of these rankings when it comes to SEC teams— and that’s not only due to the low numbers currently committed.
Updated Rivals Industry Team Recruiting Rankings for the SEC👀https://t.co/R5XwHON8pI pic.twitter.com/6QKc85v15p
— Rivals (@Rivals) June 17, 2026
No, the Tide’s average recruit rating is below nearly every single team in the SEC— and that’s with having one of the top quarterbacks in the nation on the commit list!
Elijah Haven, the Tide’s top commitment, is the no. 16-ranked player in the nation according to the Rivals Industry rankings, but even with him in the boat, the Tide are still one of the lowest in the SEC when it comes to average recruit rating. That’s extremely difficult to pull off with teams like Vanderbilt and Arkansas in the conference, but DeBoer has managed to do it.
Of course, DeBoer won at Washington without elite talent across the board, so maybe this isn’t all that relevant to whether he can pull off a winning record. However, you can’t expect to have a sustained successful record with these kind of results when you’re playing against the SEC grind.
This opens a major door for the Aggies. Though Georgia has obviously been ascendant in recent years, the Tide have occupied the other spot as top dog in the SEC— and now, the Aggies can lay claim to that spot if they keep up the elite level of play we saw out of them last year.
Texas will also look to make a run for that status, but the Aggies are shaping up better for the future right now. If the Longhorns don’t win a national title this year, they never will under Sarkisian— and their lack of depth makes that prospect pretty suspect.
Texas A&M has a big time opportunity here, so their elite recruiting results are coming just at the right time. These next three years could belong to the maroon and white.
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