Alabama Crimson Tide Football Recruiting: Early Signing Day Recap

Another December Wednesday has come and gone, and Alabama, yet again, has the top ranked recruiting class in the nation. Despite some early morning shade thrown by a couple of programs (ahem... Ohio State and Clemson....) thrown towards Alabama because all of the Tide’s recruits had not yet signed by noon, the Crimson Tide eventually signed every single player that had been committed to the program.

Alabama’s always been happy to let the recruits not announce their signings initially so that they can do the big announcement with their high school teammates (even going as far as to not announcing a couple of recruits for over a month last year), and yesterday was no different. Eventually, though, everyone got their ceremonies out of the way, and Alabama signed all 22 players committed to them.

With so many players committed already, nobody really expected any major surprises around the Crimson Tide recruiting class. The good thing was, there were a couple of surprises on the positive side of things.

First, Keanu Koht, a top-200 edge rusher, flipped away from LSU fairly early in the morning to sign with Alabama.

Later that evening, rumors started to surface that the elite, top-50 receiver, JoJo Earle, was also about to flip from LSU to Alabama. After about an hour of all the message boards running rampant, Earle officially flipped, pushing Alabama up to 24 commitments and very solidly in 1st place in the nation.

With six 5-star prospects, plus another 5 guys in the top-75, this class trails only the Alabama 2017 class and the Georgia 2018 class in the 247 Composite rankings of the last decade... And beats both of them in terms of average per recruit ranking. One or two more recruits in late February signing period could push this class into the “Best Ever” territory, with the 2010 Florida class being the one to beat.

Position-wise, the Tide got a fairly well rounded class.

QB- 1

RB- 0

WR- 4

TE- 1 (+1 grayshirt from last year)

OL- 4

DL- 3

EDGE- 3

LB- 3

CB- 3

S- 2

While the class noticeably lacks a running back, Alabama did sign 3 of them in the last class, so it’s clearly not been a position of focus in this class. Past that, there doesn’t seem to be any specific positions Alabama will be looking to fill in February, and they’ll likely hold those last 1 or 2 scholarships for an elite luxury player that may want to join.

The two big names there are defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau and running back Camar Wheaton. Both 5-star guys are long shots for the Tide, but would absolutely be welcome to join should they choose.

WR Brian Thomas had also been a heavy target for the Tide, but the flip of JoJo Earle today might have left Thomas on the outside looking in. Terrion Arnold, the safety and two-way basketball player out of Tallahassee is also still a top target for the Tide.

Of interest to those that have followed recruiting the last few months, Tunmise Adeleye officially signed with Texas A&M, and Xavier Worthy joined Michigan, so the Tide did not manage to pick up either of those guys at the last second like many had hoped.

While there may be one more recruit out there that Saban has his eyes on, they may wind up sticking with the 24 guys they have right now, and settle for only the 4th best class of all-time. What a shame.