Dre Kirkpatrick Sr. achieved a bit of history last week, when his son Dre Jr. became the first “legacy recruit” for Nick Saban at Alabama.

The elder Kirkpatrick was a star cornerback at Alabama from 2009-11, then played 10 seasons with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers. Dre Jr. — who attends Gadsden City High School as his father did — is a 3-star recruit in the 2024 class, and is projected to play safety at the next level.

The recruiting process for his son brought back fond memories for Dre Sr., he said during an interview this week on “The Randy Kennedy Show” on Mobile’s SportsTalk 99.5 FM. But there were also major differences, despite it being only 14 years since he signed with the Crimson Tide.

“It’s very different, very different, especially the signing and the commitment,” Kirkpatrick said. “We were more wrapped up around committing and signing toward the end of the season and planning your senior year out and making it a big deal. These kids now, they want to commit early; my son was like that. ‘I want to get it out of the way for the season. I want to know where I’m going.’

“It was just new to me, because I was thinking I’d play my last year out, get as many teams involved. But by me being his father, that kind of slowed things down a bit because everybody predicted ‘oh, he’s going to Bama’ because I’m his dad.”

Dre Kirkpatrick Sr. said throughout the recruiting process that he wasn’t trying to influence where his son wound up. Dre Jr. said his son seriously also considered Auburn, Arkansas and Missouri, where former Auburn and Troy assistant Al Pogue is now cornerbacks coach.

Still, Dre Sr. couldn’t hide his joy that his son wound up choosing the Crimson Tide.

“In my mind, I knew he wasn’t going to Auburn,” Kirkpatrick said with a laugh. “I knew he wasn’t going to do me like that.

“I really thought he was going to Missouri. I told him I didn’t want to know where he was going until he committed, like everybody else. I kind of had it in my mind ‘I guess he’s going to Missouri, but that’s OK, I’m going to rock with him.’ But he chose not to go there and I was happy about that.”

The Kirkpatricks are the first father-son duo to sign with Saban during his 17-year Alabama tenure, but not the first ever to play for him. Vince Marrow played linebacker for Saban at Toledo in 1990, then son Mike signed with the Crimson Tide as a fullback in the same 2009 class as Dre Kirkpatrick Sr. (Mike Marrow redshirted that year, then transferred to Central Michigan before finishing his career at Nebraska).

Saban also recruited both Mark Ingram Sr. to Michigan State in the mid-1980s and Mark Ingram II to Alabama in 2008, though he was only an assistant coach during the elder Ingram’s playing career. Kirkpatrick said Saban’s biggest strength as a recruiter hasn’t changed over the years.

“To me, it really is how honest he is,” Saban said. “My first year there, he looked at me and said ‘Hey, you can go anywhere else and start, but when you come here, you’re not starting, you’re going to learn, you’re going to develop your game.’ And I think that’s what kind of drove me to go there because it was really more of a challenge, just trying to get on the field, having discipline in my life. Because at that time, that’s exactly what I needed. It just drove me to that decision.

“He’s a great coach. He knows the game and he works with the DBs every day.”

Dre Kirkpatrick Sr. had one of the more interesting signing day ceremonies in recent memory, committing to the Crimson Tide along with wide receiver teammate Kendall Kelly during an assembly at Gadsden City High School in February 2009. In a ceremony carried live on ESPNU, Kirkpatrick — his arm in a sling due to recent shoulder surgery — pulled a gym bag out from under the table, opened it to reveal a gift bag and pulled out a black Alabama hat with a red bill, committing to a top-ranked Crimson Tide class that also included future stars such as AJ McCarron, Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacy, Chance Warmack and DJ Fluker.

“I said I needed to put some swag on that hat, so that’s what I did,” Kirkpatrick said. “It was different. It was unique. That hat had just come out.”

Here’s video of Dre Sr.’s commitment back in 2009:

Dre Jr. was born while his father was still in high school, and Dre Sr. traveled home when he could during his time at Alabama to help care for his son. The two were nearly inseparable during Dre Sr.’s NFL career, with the young Dre Jr. often hanging out in Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis’ office or sitting in on team meetings.

Asked to compare his skillset with his son’s, Dre Sr. said he thinks his son might have been underrated as a recruit.

“He has been able to be around the game a lot more than I was,” Dre Sr. said. “… He’s been around the game so much, and so long, that his IQ for the game is probably a little bit better than mine. He’s more physical than me. I’m bigger. I’m probably a little more agile than he is.

“The last two years, he was injured and we finally got his injuries taken care of this summer. If he would have been able to go to these camps like most of these kids, it would be a no-brainer that he’d be the best safety in the country. … He played on teams with 5-star (recruits) during the summertime, but I don’t think he got all the recognition he needed to get.”

The elder Kirkpatrick last visited Tuscaloosa for Alabama’s camp earlier this summer, and said he was amazed that the 71-year-old Saban was showing that “the energy is still there.” He said he plans to be back at Bryant-Denny Stadium Sept. 9 for Alabama’s much-anticipated game vs. Texas, the team he not only picked the Crimson Tide over as a recruit but that he helped beat for the BCS national championship his freshman year.

“I will be there for the Texas game,” Kirkpatrick said. “I haven’t been in a while, but I decided to go to the Texas game because that was the team that I chose from when I was getting ready to come out. I loved Texas. I love that whole coaching stuff. I definitely loved (former Longhorns defensive coordinator) Will Muschamp. What better game to go to than Alabama and Texas?”

You can hear the full interview with Dre Kirkpatrick Sr. by clicking HERE.