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The Tuscaloosa News
How Kalen DeBoer views Alabama football 2025 WR recruiting without Caleb Cunningham
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- How Kalen DeBoer views Alabama football 2025 WR recruiting without Caleb Cunningham
Alabama football was not the program that signed Caleb Cunningham on Wednesday. That was Ole Miss , who flipped the five-star wide receiver after a four-month commitment to the Crimson Tide .
But when Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about his wide receiver room in 2025, he said it's a room he's satisfied with.
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"it's a room that's in a good spot," DeBoer said. "We just need to keep growing it."
And grow it the Crimson Tide did.
Shortly after DeBoer's early signing day news conference, Alabama announced it had signed Nevada four-star wide receiver Derek Meadows , who flipped his commitment from LSU to the Crimson Tide , to join New Jersey four-star wide receiver Lotzeir Brooks in the 2025 recruiting class.
Meadows, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound receiver out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, is the No. 119 player and the No. 17 wide receiver in the 2025 class per 247Sports' composite rankings.
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Kalen DeBoer on Lotzeir Brooks: 'A very dynamic player'
But Meadows was not the receiver DeBoer could talk about.
With Meadows' signing after DeBoer's press conference, the only one he spoke of was Brooks, a player DeBoer praised as a "very dynamic player," one who has "good size" for his 5-9 frame, one who "can jump through the room," who is "super explosive" and possesses "great ball skills."
Simply put, Alabama is getting an "athlete" in Brooks.
"He's an athlete, a very good athlete. But he's also a wide receiver," DeBoer said. "He has those instinctual things, that spatial awareness (that) can make guys miss when he gets the ball in his hands. But he gets the ball in his hands. He's quarterback friendly. He's been the go-to guy."
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DeBoer broke out the stat sheet with Brooks, a player who had 4,615 yards receiving and 67 touchdowns for Millville High School, each of which are New Jersey state records.
"Those guys that have been doing it that much and have that type of production, I don't care where you're at," DeBoer said. "That's impressive because the pressure's been on him to make that next play, to convert that third down or whatever it be, to score the touchdown."
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: How Kalen DeBoer views Alabama football 2025 WR recruiting without Caleb Cunningham
