During Nick Saban’s summer trip to Italy, a 50th wedding anniversary gift for Miss Terry, he noted that no matter where he went, the Alabama football coach was sure to hear a “Roll Tide.”

Through Saban’s 16-year tenure, he’s noted how the Tide is a global brand. Of late, Alabama recruiting has been worldwide as well.

In 2022, Alabama brought in current punter James Burnip. Last year, it pulled four-star Olaus Alinen, an offensive lineman of Finnish descent. On July 9, the Tide flipped German linebacker Justin Okoronkwo, one of the best international prospects available, from Maryland. Speaking at the Nashville Grand Hyatt, Saban commented on the additions during his SEC Media Day press conference.

“I think football is creating a little more of an international brand in terms of where they are playing, who is playing, how they are playing,” Saban said, ” … We have had the opportunity to get to know these young men that we recruited from Europe, really, because they came and spent a significant amount of time with us, whether it was in camp or visiting or whatever, so that we could determine, do they have the right stuff to be able to compete at this level. It was pretty easy to see they had the talent to do it. But could they understand that this is a little more competitive, the quality of ball was going to be a little bit different, and how are you going to respond to that.”

Saban cited defensive tackle Jesse Williams — a defensive tackle from Australia who spent a year at a junior college before being a stalwart of the Tide’s 2011 and 2012 national championship teams — as an early example of its global recruiting success. Alinen attended Loomis (Conn.) Chaffee School, which opened his recruitment to more Division-I programs.

Okoronkwo, who’s from Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, attended an Alabama summer camp where he earned an offer. He came to the States as part of Brandon Collier’s PPI Recruits Dreamchasers Tour, which brings foreign recruits to schools. 247Sports Composite rated him as a three-star.

“We feel like these guys that we have recruited, Olaus is on our team now and developing nicely, and we had the young man from Germany in our camp this summer, and was very impressed with him.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected]