Alabama Accused of Tampering With College Football Playoff QB originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Tampering in college football is one of those things that everyone knows is happening, yet it’s still one of the aspects of the sport that many could do without.
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Whether it’s Group of Five or FCS programs having their star players poached by Power 4 programs, or the top of the Power 4 schools poaching players from smaller programs in the P4, it’s been an ongoing issue with the nonexistent rules surrounding the transfer portal and NIL.
Coaches have been becoming more vocal about tampering, as Colorado’s Deion Sanders called out Virginia, UConn’s Jim Mora vocalized his frustrations about Washington State tampering and so many more have come forward.
One program who was accused of tampering last season when it came to Miami (OH) kicker Graham Nicholson, was the Alabama Crimson Tide. While it cycled in and out of the news cycle fairly quickly, the Tide have been accused again on Friday.
This time, it was for a player at the most important position in sports, and one who is one of the best in the country.
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer.© Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
According to On3’s Bill Embody who was responding to a post about the Manning Passing Academy, Alabama attempted to lure SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings into the transfer portal to be the successor to Jalen Milroe.
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“Alabama tried to recruit Kevin Jennings into the transfer portal to take over for Milroe, but sure, Ty Simpson deserves a notable mention over Kevin Jennings,” wrote Embody.
Jennings burst onto the scene as one of the sport’s best dual threat quarterbacks this past season, throwing for 3,245 yards and 23 touchdowns, while rushing for another five en route to being named third-team All-ACC. He also led SMU to the ACC title game and College Football Playoff in the program’s first year as a member of the conference.
While it’s unclear when the alleged contact occurred, Jennings did announce his commitment to SMU just days before their playoff loss to Penn State.
As for the Tide, they have two former five-stars in Ty Simpson and Keelon Russell vying for the starting role. It’ll certainly be interesting to see which quarterback has a better season in 2025, but Kalen DeBoer has seemed confident in his group all offseason.
Related: Ryan Williams Names the ‘Frontrunner’ in Alabama’s QB Battle Without Hesitation
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
