On Saturday, 2018 5-star LB Ale Kaho made his debut in an Alabama uniform, practicing in shorts with the rest of the Crimson Tide players.

Kaho was originally committed to Washington, but he wasn’t admitted due to an academic issue. Therefore, he ended up in Tuscaloosa.

After Saturday’s practice, coach Nick Saban was asked about Kaho, and he explained how the talented recruit ended up with the Tide (check around the 4:40 mark of the below video):

“If a guy doesn’t get admitted to a school he’s signed to go to, then he gets an opportunity to go someplace else,” Saban said. “He can get a release, or he can choose to try to get eligible over time, but not be able to enroll in school. As I understand it, he was unable to get into school for academic reasons because of their institutional policies, not because of NCAA rules. He could get into school at most other institutions, so he had opportunities to go other places. He didn’t want to sit out and try to take other classes so he could go to the school he signed at.

“We were one of the people that recruited him, and came down to the wire in terms of whether we got him or not. When he got his release, we let him know that he had an opportunity to come here. We’re glad to have him and we think he can be a good player.”

Per the 247Sports rankings, Kaho was the No. 1 inside linebacker in the class of 2018 and the No. 1 overall recruit from the state of Nevada.