In his second full recruiting cycle, Alabama football head coach Kalen DeBoer signed another top five recruiting class.
In consecutive seasons, DeBoer has pulled in the No. 4 recruiting class, according to 247 Sports, with 20 signees for the 2026 class. The makeup of the class consists of three 5-star prospects, nine 4-star prospects, and eight 3-star prospects. The Crimson Tide are bringing in nine players on the offensive side of the ball and 11 on the defensive side.
Alabama’s 2026 class is highlighted by the No. 1 LBXavier Griffin 6-3 / 200 lbs (Gainesville, Ga.), No. 1 CB Jorden Edmonds 6-2.5 / 175 lbs (Marietta, Ga.) and No. 2 RB Ezavier Crowell 5-11 / 205 lbs (Jackson, Ala.).
DeBoer was especially excited about what he is getting with running back Ezavier Crowell, a player who reclassified to leave high school a year early. With the struggles in the run game this year, as well as a couple of seniors graduating, Crowell could see the field as a true freshman.
“When he decided to reclassify and come out a year early, we knew exactly where we needed to go, " DeBoer said. “And getting him here is huge for us and our program and the running back position. A guy that finishes in the end zone, so has that type of top end, but also just over and over, what he can do in a confined area — breaking tackles, bouncing off guys, running through them, making guys miss — he’s an exciting athlete. A big athlete for how old he is right now, too. I can’t wait to get him in our program and get him working in the weight room.”
The nation’s No. 1 linebacker, Xavier Griffin, also received high praise from the head coach.
“X is a guy that’s a flex guy,” DeBoer said. “I mean, we really see him as like a Jihad Campbell linebacker. Can fly, can run. He’s got some length, and he’s gonna put on some good weight and can be versatile enough to go play on the edge and not have to necessarily sub in when you wanna put him in spots to go get after the quarterback. And so, we just can’t wait to have our defensive staff get their hands on him and let him go to work.”
DeBoer also believes he has a couple of playmakers in the secondary with the signing of the No. 1 CB Jorden Edmonds and No. 6 CB Zyan Gibson.
“Coach Mo continues to just knock it out of the park with the recruitment of our corners,” DeBoer said. “You don’t need a lot of them if you got the right ones, and to me, we got the right ones. Zyan and Jorden, I know they’re really not that much different. The standout piece with Jorden is that he’s extremely tall, but Zyan’s got great size, too. And both of them, very athletic, getting multi-sport guys. Jorden is a guy that can play both sides of the ball, was very versatile that way. And so, just extremely athletic. Guys that are instinctual playmakers. Guys that attack it, attack on the football field. And so, really excited about what Zyan and Jorden are gonna do. Those guys committed both in the summer. I think really saw them as the two corners in the class moving forward and stayed committed to that, and that makes life a lot easier for us because we can focus on other areas. So, I appreciate these two, and really looking forward to them continuing on what we’ve been doing in the last couple years in the corner position.”
Here are the Crimson Tide’s newest additions:
All rankings come from 247 Sports recruiting rankings
5-star signees:
Edge Xavier Griffen
CB Jorden Edmonds
RB Ezavier Crowell
4-star signees:
S Jireh Edwards
WR Cederian Morgan
CB Zyan Gibson
QB Jett Thomalla
TE Mack Sutter
DL Jamarion Matthews
DL Nolan Wilson
OL Chris Booker
OL Jared Doughty
3-star signees:
DL Corey Howard
S Rihyael Kelley
Edge Malique Franklin
Edge Kamhariyan Johnson
OL Bear Fretwell
QB Tayden Kaawa
LB Zay Hall
OL Tyrell Miller
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