The Alabama Crimson Tide enter their first recruiting cycle in the post Nick Saban era, and new head coach Kalen DeBoer looks primed to try some new recruiting tactics.
DeBoer and Alabama ended February by extending offers to two 2025 Pennsylvania recruits that are starting to gain national recognition. The first is tight end Andrew Olesh, a 4-star from Center Valley, PA. Olesh has an impressive offer list that includes Michigan, Miami, Penn State, Ole Miss, Missouri and Texas A&M. Olesh can now add Alabama to that list.
Another Pennsylvania recruit that picked up an Alabama offer at the end of February was 4-star interior offensive lineman Michael Carroll. Carroll lives just outside of Philadelphia, attending Central Bucks East High School. He’s listed at 6-foot-5 and 290 pounds and is rated as the No. 15 interior lineman in the 247 Sports Composite rankings.
Alabama has recruited Pennsylvania before, most recently in the 2024 cycle when the Tide landed 4-star wide receiver Rico Scott out of Harrisburg. What makes this different is that DeBoer isn’t just going after recruits that attend powerhouse schools in big cities such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg but the suburbs and rural areas, where Carroll and Olesh are from.
Under Saban, there were a few instances of Alabama offering recruits from small towns in Pennsylvania, but those were can’t miss 5-star recruits such as Julian Fleming and Nick Singleton. Those two guys had offers from every big-time program in the nation.
DeBoer is looking to cast a larger net when it comes to Alabama recruiting and small-town recruits in Pennsylvania are now included in that.
There could be an underlying reason for Alabama to extend these offers, outside of the fact that Olesh and Carroll are good players. The Tide currently do not have a quarterback commit in the 2025 class, and one of the best in the nation resides in the same region of Pennsylvania as Olesh and Carroll.
Matt Zollers, a top ten quarterback recruit from Royersford, PA, released a top four group of Georgia, Penn State, Missouri and Pitt in February, but hasn’t committed anywhere yet. It’s possible the Tide are laying groundwork in the region with Olesh and Carroll in hopes of entering the fray for Zollers later, if Alabama can impress at least one of Olesh or Carrol, and Zollers still hasn’t committed to any of the schools in his top group.
Regardless, Alabama becoming a player in rural Pennsylvania would be bad news for Penn State, who does the majority of its in-state recruiting in areas like the ones Olesh, Carroll and Zollers reside in. And with the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams, any talent a team can take away from another possible playoff contender is a big win.