[Applause] [Applause] back in on the Bama football tailgate show as we get you ready for Alabama and Western Kentucky and there he is the man the myth the legend from Bama online and on three our recruiting expert for years and years the guru of recruiting Andrew bone brought brought to you by visit Tuscaloosa the farmers market the Tuscaloosa civil rights Trail the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater Druid City and all the great barbecue and food around town brought to you by them uh Bon first off it is great to see you and since we've talked last on here Alabama has a new head coach a new coaching staff but it hasn't slowed them down in recruiting number two according to your service yeah yeah great to be back with you Mick um happy football season uh it's kind of crazy that we're uh we're here it just seems like uh seems like yesterday when Nick Sav announced his retirement and I was I think you know that day I was sitting uh I'd gone into my bedroom and somebody had text me um about there was a big announcement happening um you know that day and you know of course you start reaching out different people asking you know different questions and everybody's like yeah no standard stuff uh you know first day of school meeting with the Freshman you know full team meeting blah blah blah and then all of a sudden um your world kind of flips upside down and you're because we we had just gone through the entire football season you had gone through uh Signing Day transfer portal all that kind of stuff and you're just like all right finally a little bit of a break it's not g be too much going on and then that happens and then you're just you know you're kind of just going non-stop for the next several months because you had you know coaching changes transfer portal reopen and you know spring practice all these different visitors coming in you know summer camp some visits uh it was just so much that was going on uh just non-stop and when we finally got to August practice starts but it it sort of slowed down uh you know a little bit because it was just pandemonium for a while it was kind of crazy but once you kind of got into the season you're like okay we know what's going on it's uh football time uh time to go to work so uh it's been pretty fun but yeah Alabama currently sitting with the number two recruiting class in the country according to on three Sports we've had you know so much coverage at BAM online.com for the last several months um recruiting front um and people didn't know what to expect people did not know what to expect with this new coaching staff you know different guys from all over the country a lot of coaches that you know people just weren't familiar with including coach kayin deor um coming from Washington how was he and being a South Dakota native being on the well you know basically on the west coast uh his uh you know majority of his career you know in the midwest what was he going to be able to do in Tuscaloosa well you know it's not necessarily about where you've been it's more about who you are and Coach Kaylin dor is one of the most genuine um personable coaches that you'll ever find and that's coming from so many different people whether it's uh people who coached for him people who played for him um people who you I talked to somebody uh this summer who lived in uh lives in California and their uh their neighbor went to the same high school as uh as coach dor and when the the announcement was made they were talking about it the guy was just blown away talked about how great of a person he is how Alabama just got you know an unbelievable um you know coach and coach in person and Coach D'Or and then you kind of hear that from families of recruits you Dawson Merritt who's a uh one of Alabama's top commitments out of out of Overland Park in Kansas uh top 100 guy I talked to his father who coaches for the Kansas City Chiefs and he told me we came down to Tuscaloosa uh on our first visit and we went and met with Coach dbor um on the balcony right out over that overlooks the practice field he said we talked to him for over an hour and a half and nobody else even knew we were there we were just having a normal conversation 10% of it was about football everything was just personal you know you guys like to do where you're from uh getting to know you and we heard that from so many different people you know throughout the summer so recruiting he's got down um but what everybody wants to know obviously is what is he going to be able to do this football season on the field when he's you know in know in Death Valley and when he's in Norman Oklahoma um you know when he's playing up against Georgia in Tuscaloosa on September the 28th how is Alabama gonna perform on the field because he's going to be judged and that coaching staff's gonna be judged by what they do this season more so than what they've done over the course of the last eight months and right right everything they've done over the last eight months it's been as good as you could possibly imagine um you had your early hiccups with the transfer portal which was expected that was gonna happen when Nick said retired but they were able to stop that bleeding they were able to bring in some reinforcements and now it's time to uh you know show everybody what you can do let me ask you this um you you lose two guys to Auburn Coleman and Smith right and then you lose one guy that flip IPS a linebacker to Tennessee so but Alabama's still the number two recruiting class how are they going to make that up and is is uh what is it Ty Jackson the linebacker out of Florida is he is he a guy that we can expect to see coming to Alabama where are the end roads to finish this recruiting class and also try to keep these guys from leaving to get to that at least to the Finish Line at number two or number one yes so I think uh you know on the defensive line front uh you they definitely want to add at least one more player um they've got Justice Terry festar defensive lineman out of Georgia that's going to be coming back in uh for the Georgia game uh next month so that's going to be a guy that we're going to be watching Pretty closely and there's some other guys that are out there that Alabama's evaluating uh during their senior season we've seen some new offers that have gotten extended but you know it's still one of those situations where you might you may extend offers right now but you're still kind of in that evaluation mode you you want to see them a little bit more as seniors you want to get these guys on campus uh meet with coaching staff we we've seen that throughout the last you know you know several years even with the previous staff and Coach Sav you know they would offer players as seniors uh get them on campus meet with them try to decide you know are these guys that we want to continue to pursue really push for bring them back for an official visit so even though you might see an offer that gets extended out there uh to a senior is like you know unless they're coming to campus and meeting with the coaching staff and everything looks good kind of afterwards you really don't uh I wouldn't really put much stock in it just yet you're just kind of waiting and seeing but um yeah I definitely think that Alabama's evaluating a lot of guys safety position is going to be kind of interesting because um they don't have any safety commitments after Derek Smith flipped uh to Auburn now you know I think they would certainly love to get Derek Smith back on board but it seems like he may want to play wide receiver uh in college rather rather than safety so and that's what Auburn recruited them to play now in my opinion Derrick Smith is one of the best overall athletes in the country he could play any position and I think Auburn or Alabama would be open to uh letting him play just about any position but he was recruited specifically by the Crimson Tide to play that safety role so who else is out there there's not a lot of options there's not a lot of guys that Alabama has really gone after U there's a kid that's gonna be visiting Alabama this weekend and tavius Richardson who is a uh commitment to South Florida didn't go to really any camps during the summer has never been to Alabama before but he is on Alabama's radar he's 6'2 175 lbs ran a 1068 in the 100 meters so this is a guy that uh you know has some great film uh obviously has some great speed I think Alabama would like to meet with them in person sit down with them talk to them get to know him a little bit determine that this is a guy that they're really going to push for so since we haven't really seen a ton of offers that kind of indicates that you know it's not necessarily A you know major major need right now but they still would like to get somebody so you know I think they would at least like like to get one safety and uh kind of see where things are at it's a long season we we talk about this all the time at bamaonline.com even though Alabama has the number two recruiting class they had an unbelievable summer we're still kind of at the halfway point right even though we still got three even though we only have three months left there's a long football season ahead and so many things can change coaching changes you know players could go to different games and you know have a different opinion there's so many kids that are watching Alabama this season not just guys that are um you know uncommitted but you have guys who are committed elsewhere even have your own commitments uh that want to see what Alabama what the product's going to look like on the field this season on the offensive and defensive side of the ball are they going to continue to have the same they had with Nick Sabin and um you know if they do things can um things can continue to go well on the recruiting front all right guys make sure you follow Andrew bone Bama online part of Onre the Onre Sports Network bone always the best in the business great to see you brother and for those of you guys that are hanging out with us on our YouTube channel the Bama tailgate YouTube channel like And subscribe give us a thumbs up we got more Alabama and Western Kentucky talk as we get you ready for the opener right here on the Bama tailgate show [Applause]