Kalen DeBoer shares craziest recruiting stories, reveals his car was robbed 'at least once'

Kalen DeBoer, like any coach at the Power Four level, has been all over the country recruiting high-profile talent for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Athletes with potential come from all over, and it’s DeBoer and his staff’s job to identify them.

That also includes visiting their homes, watching their games and practices. DeBoer shared some of his tales from the recruiting trail during Wednesday’s weekly coaches show, including one scary situation he encountered while on the road.

“Sometimes when you’re doing some recruiting, you end up in some some alleys and some areas of a city or something, you know, that may be a little bit questionable — I can think of those,” DeBoer said. “I’ve had my car broken into at least once. So not anything crazy, though. As far as, like, I’ve never been to Alaska or Europe or anything like that.

“Some of these other sports, they’re traveling all over the world. That’s not the case for us.”

DeBoer didn’t go into specifics, but it makes you stop and think what types of stories other college football coaches have that they’ve yet to share. For the most part, however, it’s smooth sailing.

“(Nothing) wild, but we’ve been to Hawaii before, you know, recruited guys from there,” DeBoer continued. “That wasn’t too bad. … I mean, it’s most of the time in the state.”

Whatever DeBoer and his staff are doing — it’s working. This past offseason, the Crimson Tide brought in the No. 3 overall recruiting class in the 2025 cycle. The year before, DeBoer held together the second-best class following Nick Saban’s retirement. DeBoer and company are already off to a fast start for 2026 as well, boasting an early top-10 class.

That has pretty much been the standard at Alabama for the better part of two decades. It has turned Tuscaloosa into a destination for NFL hopefuls and those with championship aspirations.

While DeBoer hasn’t led the Crimson Tide to those heights, they’re on the right track following Week 1’s heartbreaking loss to Florida State on the road. Since then, Alabama has won its last three games including a statement 24-21 win over Georgia at home.

Looking ahead, Alabama is gearing up to take on a ranked Vanderbilt team this Saturday. The Commodores bested DeBoer’s Crimson Tide one year ago in Nashville, and will look to avoid a similar outcome this time around. Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. ET.