Alabama transfer offensive lineman Micah DeBose might be leaving Tuscaloosa, but he’s staying put in the SEC.
DeBose, who spent his true freshman season at Alabama before deciding to transfer, has committed to conference rival Vanderbilt for the 2026 season. DeBose told On3’s Hayes Fawcett on Sunday morning of his transfer destination for next fall.
He’s a mammoth 6-foot-5, 320-pound product of Mobile, Ala., so it’s an even bigger transfer victory for Vandy, considering DeBose was a highly coveted product from the state of Alabama during the 2025 recruiting cycle. DeBose will have 4 years of eligibility left come next fall, so he could potentially be at Vanderbilt for quite a while.
DeBose didn’t see the field a whole lot during his one season in Tuscaloosa, playing in just one game, which was a late-season blowout of Eastern Illinois. Now, he’s heading to Nashville to try to change all of that in 2026 after being such a coveted recruit coming out of high school in Mobile.
With Vanderbilt coming off a 10-win season in 2025, its best year in program history, DeBose will look to boost the Commodores to even greater heights in 2026.
Interestingly, DeBose will be heading to Vanderbilt from Alabama during a time when the 2 programs with virtually nothing in common historically have started to develop a rivalry. Vandy knocked off Bama in Nashville during the 2024 season before the Tide got some payback in Tuscaloosa this past fall.
DeBose has thrust himself right into this new burgeoning SEC rivalry with his transfer after one season.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
