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Here is the insiders’ latest reporting on the four highest-ranked available players in the 2024 recruiting class:
GOOD NEWS:Antonio Kite, an Alabama cornerback, is moving to Auburn via the transfer site.
Antonio Kite, an Alabama cornerback, is moving to Auburn via the transfer site.
After two seasons in Tuscaloosa, an Alabama cornerback in the transfer portal is headed to Auburn.
Antonio Kite announced Wednesday, via Auburn Undercover, that he will be making the move to the Plains. Kite had stated plans Saturday to enter the transfer portal and officially went into the portal early this week.
Kite re-unites with Charles Kelly, who was Alabama’s safeties coach in 2022 before spending last season at Colorado. Kelly is now Auburn’s co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach.
Transfers between Alabama and Auburn have been rare, and Kite becomes the first player to move within the Iron Bowl rivalry since transfer portal rules loosened in 2021. Historically, running back Corey Grant transferred from Alabama to Auburn in 2011.
Kite was a four-star prospect in the 2022 class from Anniston, Alabama ranked No. 227 nationally by 247 Sports. He appeared in two games as a freshman and redshirted, then appeared in seven games this past season, mostly on special teams. Kite was one of Alabama’s second-team cornerbacks, opposite Trey Amos, in pregame warmups in 2023.
Since Nick Saban’s retirement last week, there have been eight Alabama players to enter the transfer portal. Kite joins Isaiah Bond (Texas) and Shawn Murphy (Florida State) as those picking new schools already.
Here’s the full list of Alabama’s 25 players to have entered the portal since it initially opened in early December:
- QB Tyler Buchner — Notre Dame (Lacrosse)
- WR Ja’Corey Brooks — Louisville
- DL Anquin Barnes — Colorado
- OL Seth McLaughlin — Ohio State
- DB Earl Little Jr. — Florida State
- QB Eli Holstein — Pittsburgh
- WR Malik Benson — Florida State
- DL Monkell Goodwine — South Carolina
- DL Isaiah Hastings — Syracuse
- DB Kristian Story — Kentucky
- OL Terrence Ferguson II – Florida State
- DB Jake Pope — Georgia
- TE Miles Kitselman — Tennessee
- RB Roydell Williams — Florida State
- WR Isaiah Bond — Texas
- WR Shazz Preston — Tulane
- LB Shawn Murphy — Florida State
- LB Kendrick Blackshire — Texas
- CB Dezz Ricks — Texas A&M
- CB Antonio Kite — Auburn
- LB Ian Jackson
- TE Amari Niblack
- CB Trey Amos
- DB Caleb Downs
- OL Kadyn Proctor
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Alabama AD Greg Byrne: ‘There was not a perfect candidate that checked every single box’
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Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said the only perfect candidate for the Tide’s opening was Nick Saban.
- Was there a perfect candidate for Alabama’s head-coaching vacancy? Athletics director Greg Byrne believes there was only one: Nick Saban.”Unfortunately, he didn’t interview for the job this time,” Byrne told The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday. “Tongue-in-cheek when I say that.”
Saban’s retirement last Wednesday thrust Byrne into a coaching search he had long expected to come at some point after his hire in 2017, but without an obvious solution.
- “We had been looking and being prepared for a long time,” Byrne said. “[There’s] the old saying that the AD has a list in his top desk drawer, which I never have had. But what I’ve had is something that’s a fluid list that changes in time. We had vetted, probably, a couple dozen coaches over the years that we thought, OK, could they make sense? Some made a lot more sense than others. We had criteria of what we were looking for.”The reality is, none of them fit. There was not a perfect candidate that checked every single box. Except for probably Nick Saban, that would have been it.”
After Saban informed players of his difficult decision, Byrne told the room to give him 72 hours to find the next coach. Byrne immediately drove to Birmingham’s airport and called former Alabama players on his way for advice.
“I talked to Joe Namath, and many others,” Byrne told Finebaum. “Just to get some feedback and see if they had any thoughts that they’d like to give me. They’ve got great perspective. I talked to a few key contributors of ours. I told them, I said, after this point, it’s gonna be boots to the ground for me and I’m going to be very focused on the task at hand.”
- That search led Byrne to Seattle to interview Washington’s Kalen DeBoer. When asked Saturday after DeBoer was introduced if he was the Tide’s first choice, Byrne said, “I don’t ever look at it as first choice, second choice, third choice. I really don’t. God’s honest truth. I look at it as you go through the process and you work on Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D. And that’s not a rank order. When I sit down with somebody on one day, and in my mind, I may think that, ‘Hey, this one make the most sense.’ As soon as you sit down with somebody, you have a feel very quickly.”What I’ll tell you is as soon as I sat down with Coach DeBoer and Nicole, his wife, was there and Regina, when we sat down two days ago in a hotel room in Seattle, I was not that long into it, I was like, ‘this could be our guy.’ You want to make sure you do your due diligence and all those things, and that’s what we did. But thrilled we’re standing here today with him as our new coach.”
Byrne expanded Wednesday on his approach the possible candidates on his list.
“I know one of the things you hear out there is well, you had your first choice, second choice — and I said in the press conference, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C,” he told Finebaum. “But that’s not necessarily the order that you have as far as who you want. I think it’s irresponsible, on my part, if I walk into an interview and already say, ‘Well, I think think this is my third choice but I’m gonna talk to him anyways.’ I want to be open-minded and thoughtful in the conversations that will take place.
“So in a lot of ways, you have multiple names on a list, but in some ways, it’s bullet points. It’s not even numbers, it’s not even lettered. That was the approach I took on this one. As you could imagine, we had great interest in the job. It’s a premier job.”
Five days into the job, Byrne likes what he sees.
- “I feel very confident, and even watching Coach DeBoer over the few days and working with him closely — we’ve been here, I think last night was the earliest night I got home. I think I got home at 9:30 last night,” Byrne said Wednesday. “We had been here. And his staff is starting to show up. Putting the staff together, working on the roster, meeting with kids.”
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College football recruiting: Potential landing spots for top-available 2024 prospects
- For those prospects who did not make their college decisions official during the Early Signing Period, they now enter the final stages of their recruitments with the second National Signing Day of the 2024 cycle just around the corner on Wednesday, Feb. 7. The four highest-ranked available players are at the center of attention with wide receivers Ryan Williams and Gatlin Bair, athlete Terry Bussey and edge rusher Noah Carter closing in on decisions.Some of the most high-profile recruits in the 2024 class are in a state of uncertainty amid the coaching changes at Alabama and Washington, with Williams and Carter originally committed to those schools, respectively.
With the next signing period just three weeks away, 247Sports director of scouting Andrew Ivins and national recruiting analyst Cooper Petagna convened on the 247Sports Football Recruiting Podcast to discuss potential landing spots for the top uncommitted players in the cycle.
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WR RYAN WILLIAMS:
Recruiting Profile: 5-Star | 98 Rating | No. 10 Overall | No. 3 WR
Ryan Williams’ recruitment has so far been far from straightforward. The longtime Alabama commit re-classified from the 2025 cycle to 2024 and appeared poised to bring tremendous upside to the Crimson Tide’s receiving corps next season, but he did not sign in December and quickly backed off his pledge following Nick Saban’s retirement. Alabama remains in the mix and will get Williams on campus for another official visit, but so too will Auburn, which already has a hefty receiver haul headlining its class. Texas and LSU may also be in play for the two-time 1,000-yard receiver.
Petagna: “Think about what this dude could do for a program like Auburn. We just raved about Walker White and what we saw from him in San Antonio. Now you think about the idea of a Ryan Williams, a Cam Coleman, a Perry Thompson, a Malcolm Simmons, a Bryce Cain. I mean, that is five deep. Maybe three of those guys have legitimate chances to go in the top 32 to 50 at the next level, and that’s not something I’m typically comfortable saying when they’re still seniors in high school. So Ryan Williams, to me, you talk about guys that could change the perception of what a program is going to be offensively — that’s the dude for me.”
Recruiting Profile: 5-Star | 98 Rating | No. 20 Overall | No. 1 ATH
Prized two-way star Terry Bussey committed to Texas A&M in September, but in the wake of Jimbo Fisher’s departure from the Aggies program, he did not make things official during the Early Signing Period. The top-ranked athlete effectively re-opened his recruitment, and he has multiple visits lined up following the Polynesian Bowl. Bussey — who closed his high school career with more than 11,000 yards of total offense and 169 total touchdowns — projects as an impact player on either or both sides of the ball.
Ivins: “He’s going to take an official visit to Georgia… If Terry Bussey is going to UGA, I’m all for him playing offense, because it’s going to be hard year one, year two to crack that rotation on the back end… [Hudson Standish] thinks LSU is a team to watch. I also get super jazzed up and excited about that when you think about the new-look defensive staff there in Baton Rouge… And obviously you’ve got Texas A&M. Mike Elko just picked up a commitment from former five-star corner Dezz Ricks in the transfer portal. So a ton of different options to me.”
Recruiting Profile: 4-Star | 96 Rating | No. 36 Overall | No. 10 WR
He hails from a small town in Burley, Idaho, but Gatlin Bair proved at the All-American Bowl that he belongs on the biggest stage next to the most prolific players. The highest-rated prospect in Idaho high school football history originally committed to in-state powerhouse Boise State, but he reversed course amid the Broncos’ coaching change and is now set to choose between Michigan and Oregon. Bair will embark on a two-year church mission before stepping foot on the college football field.
Petagna: “I want to get ahead of the curve here. A lot of people have thought Gatlin Bair to Michigan is kind of a done deal. What happens if Jim Harbaugh goes to the NFL? He’s already interviewed with the Chargers and the Atlanta Falcons. In the next couple weeks, that could then just pop open the door for Dan Lanning, and then once again, it’s just that caliber of player falls in his lap.
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