This is an opinion column.

The buzzards are circling.

For years they’ve been stalking, lurking in the weeds, waiting for this moment. A week ago Wednesday, the dam broke and now they’re flooding the valley. Or Tuscaloosa.

Perhaps nobody’s been lingering longer than the crown prince of SEC mischief. So, a week after Nick Saban retired and as the Alabama transfer dominos continued to fall, Lane Kiffin dropped the perfectly savage tweet Wednesday evening.

No words.

Just a picture.

The shot of the intersection of Lurleen Wallace and University boulevards featuring a sign pointing toward the Alabama campus said it all. Kiffin later deleted the original tweet and reshared the photo with a circling shark emoji.

This came amid a historic feeding frenzy as new Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer scraps to keep his SEC colleagues from raiding his locker room.

Kiffin posted his first Tuscaloosa tweet 30 minutes after Auburn announced it signed former Alabama defensive back Antonio Kite. He’s believed to be only the second player in the modern era of the Iron Bowl to make the Tuscaloosa to Auburn move, joining running back Corey Grant who did it in 2011.

Just a few minutes after Kiffin’s jab, news of Caleb Downs’ official entry into the transfer portal hit the same social media networks.

And a few minutes after that, Kiffin was tweeting a picture of the Nick Saban statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium with a heart and GOAT emoji. Then a photo of a bridge with ROLL TIDE painted on the overpass. This came on the same day his Ole Miss program preempted Auburn’s announcement of new offensive coordinator Derrick Nix, breaking accepted protocol when posting the news of his departure and new position to the program’s official X account.

An all-time day for social media mischief. But Kiffin saved his best work for his former employer.

Just dragging his Alabama followers nose-first through the pasture he’d occupied when Saban was king, Kiffin’s never been afraid to take a shot. But he felt unleashed in the past week.

As of Wednesday night, seven of the 15 SEC schools outside of Tuscaloosa have landed Alabama transfers this cycle. That doesn’t include Ole Miss, arguably the most aggressive in the NIL and transfer space.

Whether a pure troll or a precursor to a grave-stomp commitment, Kiffin’s joining the chorus of the Raid on Alabama. Armed with a new rule that re-opened the transfer portal for 30 days after a head coaching move, leveraged relationships and frankly more cachet than DeBoer, rivals are picking off big names from the Alabama locker room.

Two 5-stars from the 2023 class entered the portal Wednesday. Downs is the crown jewel but top-ranked left tackle Kadyn Proctor also hit the open market.

That makes eight outgoing transfers in the week since Saban cleaned out his office. Iron Bowl icon Isaiah Bond went to Texas. Defensive back Dezz Ricks to Texas A&M. Linebacker Shawn Murphy became the fifth from Alabama to land at Florida State.

But it was Kite, a reserve defensive back from Anniston, who fired an Iron Bowl shot when making a rare swap. Mostly a special teams player in his two Alabama seasons, Kite’s move isn’t necessarily the difference between the playoff or Shreveport, but another butter-knife wound.

The real attention is focused squarely on Downs, the top-ranked safety and No. 8 overall recruit in the 2023 recruiting class. He went on to win the national freshman of the year award while leading Alabama in tackles in Year 1.

Losing DB coach Travaris Robinson, who led Downs in Tuscaloosa, to Georgia was instantly seen as an ominous sign in Alabama’s efforts to keep the Mill Creek (Ga.) High, product on this side of the border. Fans also uncovered this generation’s Zapruder film of Kirby Smart seeking Downs for a handshake and quick greeting after the 2023 SEC title game as preemptive evidence of an alleged pre-crime.

Stay tuned on that one while, for whatever it’s worth, remembering now-Auburn defensive coordinator Charles Kelly was Downs’ lead recruiter to Alabama.

On any other day, the decommitment of a five-star recruit would have been mentioned much higher in a column but here we are referencing Enterprise’s Zion Grady way down here. The Class of 2025 might not be the highest of priorities when the current roster is being plundered, but Grady’s comments about a “lack of communication” from Alabama when reopening his recruitment made waves.

The serenity of the Pacific Northwest is a long way away for DeBoer this Thursday morning.

He got good news from a few players who announced returns to Tuscaloosa on Wednesday night, though. Offensive tackles Jaeden Roberts and Olaus Alinen said they’d be back. Offensive guard Tyler Booker previously stated his intentions to stay.

Every scholarship player matters at this point for DeBoer.

Six days after climbing on that plane in Seattle bound for Tuscaloosa, the new Alabama football coach is in a bare knuckle fight for not only his future rosters, but his current one.

The buzzards are circling.

Did DeBoer pack his 12-gauge?

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.