How Alabama football's Kalen DeBoer held a Nick Saban signing class together | Goodbread

Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer's signing-class retention rate is now locked down at 92%.

The Crimson Tide's freshman infusion of 26 players, including three who inked Wednesday in the recruiting calendar's second and final signing period, had just two depart for other schools in the wake of former coach Nick Saban's ground-shaking retirement.

But one of them was a five-star quarterback, you say? We'll get to that.

More importantly, to what can we attribute that 92% of a signing class built by Saban stuck around to play for DeBoer, a coach most of them previously knew nothing about, instead of hitting the transfer portal? They signed up to be coached by the best to ever do it, just like the rest of the roster, but this would be the class least invested in the program, if only because the newcomers hadn't really experienced it.

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Due credit to the incoming coaching staff's sales pitch — and by all accounts, it was well-executed — but the impact of the December early signing period, in this regard, shouldn't be discounted.

It was only eight years ago that the first Wednesday in February was the only National Signing Day. Back then, a coaching change in December or January would hit a signing class like a wrecking ball. Commitments would scatter for a quick official visit or two somewhere else — remember, at that time, they weren't enrolling early for spring semesters as commonly as now — and be gone. The incoming coach would be left to scramble and backfill with any recruits he could sway at the 11th hour.

Things are different now.

Emotionally, new signees are done with the exhaustive recruiting process as soon as they put ink to paper. That's always been the case, but DeBoer had a built-in retention advantage in that Alabama's class already signed when he was hired, not to mention the majority of them (19) had already enrolled for the spring. Sure, they all had the same opportunity to jump in the transfer portal as any veteran, and two of them did just that, but it's not like those who stuck around are stuck for long. The portal opens all over again in about three months.

That gives DeBoer three months to put his culture into action, however, which, from his standpoint, is a much better chance to sell his program to a group of recruits that Saban assembled. Eight years ago, many of them would've spent the past four weeks visiting other campuses, where coaches still had the flexibility to add them on what was then the one and only February NSD.

Back to the five-star quarterback: Julian Sayin bolted for Ohio State, along with a four-star cornerback in Jameer Grimsley, a Tampa native who landed at Florida.

Sayin was one of the early enrollers, even joining the team for Rose Bowl practices, and his departure was made into a big deal by recruiting experts and fans alike. But there's a reason Saban was fond of pointing out that star-ratings disappear once players get to campus. Everybody's a zero-star once the practice whistle blows. Five-stars bust. Two-stars blossom. Does a top-ranked signing class loaded with star power tend to pan out better than a weak class? Sure it does. But there are no guarantees of individual success, even with the elite recruits like Sayin. Check back on him in a couple years, and you'll have a decent idea of what Alabama really lost. Until then, there's no telling.

Of greater significance to DeBoer is that the nation's No. 2-ranked signing class didn't disintegrate in the wake of Saban's departure. And while coaches generally aren't fans of the December signing period, you'd better believe it worked in DeBoer's favor this time around.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How Alabama football's Kalen DeBoer held onto a Saban signing class