

Alabama defensive line commitment Antonio Alfano joined the Crimson Tide’s 2019 class back in May. The Colonia (N.J.) product is looking forward to getting to Tuscaloosa and representing his home state.

“Not a lot of people from the East Coast, especially New Jersey, go to Alabama besides Minkah (Fitzpatrick) and (Anthony) Averett,” Alfano said on the Crimson and Blue Chips podcast.

A big of part of Alfano choosing Alabama over Georgia and Penn State was because of a first-year Tide assistant.

“Josh Gattis helped a lot with the decision,” Alfano said. “Him being at Penn State in the beginning, we were always really close. Him moving to Alabama really helped Alabama a lot. We went down there and got to see a familiar face from up in this area. It kind of felt like a good sign. It felt almost like it was home kind of.”

Alfano and his father returned to Tuscaloosa in early April to visit with the staff. After the trip, Alfano admits Alabama led in his recruitment but that he wanted to give it some time to let the visit high wear off. The 4-star defensive lineman said in the month following his return home, two things happened that assured him UA was the school for him.

“I had dreams of me playing in the Alabama stadium in an Alabama uniform,” Alfano said. “I woke up and thought that’s gotta be a sign.”

Another sign came from Alfano’s mom one day on a shopping trip.

“She was out with her friends at an outlet mall,” he said. “There was like this big barrel in front of this store and it had all these handkerchiefs in them, all types of handkerchiefs with different designs. My mom sticks her hand in and pulls out a handkerchief, the first one she pulls out out of all these other handkerchiefs, and she opens it up and it’s a big huge thing that says Alabama on it.”

Alfano went on to commit and hasn’t looked back. He spoke more about the type of person his primary recruiter, Josh Gattis, is.

“Seeing him again and seeing how happy he was at Alabama, it was just welcoming,” Alfano said. “It’s just a familiar face down there. I’m going to be faraway from home and I feel like he’s a guy that will have my back down there. Everyone down there is southern and he’s the only guy from up here to be able to talk about restaurants or sports teams.”

Another individual that Alfano has built a strong bond and will spend quite a bit of time with at the Capstone is defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski. Prior to committing, Alfano says he was told by several people outside of Alabama that the Tide’s first-year DL coach is the best in the business.

“As a person, Coach Kuligowski definitely has a different style of coaching,” Alfano said. “He’s not more of like an up-your-ass kind of guy. He’s not going to get after you and yell in your face; he’s going to teach you how it is one-on-one and put his knowledge in your head and explains it in a way so that you understand it. His demeanor is so relaxed so that you just receive the information really well. Getting to play for someone like that is going to be an honor.”

As for recruiting, Alfano has shut the process down and is focusing on his Colonia team. ?

“In the very beginning after I committed there were still schools that kept in contact with me,” Alfano said. “I kind of after that I let them know I’m 100 percent committed to Alabama and there’s no changing what I’m going to do. I’m not going to visit any other schools because to me if I’m talking to other schools, it’s like I’m committed to a girl but I’m cheating on her. That’s the analogy I think of. Why would I commit to a school and talk to other schools on the side.”

Alfano hopes to return to Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl and then take an official visit after the season. Right now he’s on track to graduate early and enroll at Alabama in January.

Listen to the full interview here: