{"id":73884,"date":"2025-05-11T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=73884"},"modified":"2025-05-10T22:17:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T02:17:36","slug":"a-look-at-alabama-recruiting-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/05\/11\/a-look-at-alabama-recruiting-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"A look at Alabama recruiting for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alabama recruiting for 2026 has gotten off to a good start. Alabama finished ranked fourth by <em>247Sports <\/em>with their 2025 class, but the work did not stop there, though. Head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/19\/alabama-stars-shut-out-of-first-team-honors\/\" target=\"_self\">Kalen DeBoer and staff<\/a> have already added five commits to the 2026 class. Alabama has one five-star, a four-star, and a trio of three-stars on the commitment list. Currently, the 2026 group is ranked 36<sup>th<\/sup>, but with summer visits, that ranking is only expected to improve. Here is a look at Alabama recruiting for 2026.<\/p>\n<h2>Alabama Recruiting for 2026<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_73890\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73890\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-73890 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"All of the articles going to social media works the regular way now...no need to cut nd paste\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/USATSI_25286921_168400536_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer. Photo courtesy: Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Tide Recruiting adds to Secondary<\/h3>\n<p>Alabama recruiting for 2026 features a top player in five-star <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/jorden-edmonds-46146643\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jorden Edmonds<\/a>. He is from Marietta, Georgia, and is a cornerback who is ranked by <em>247Sports<\/em> as the best in his position. Edmonds is also ranked tenth nationally and the No. 2 player in Georgia. He is a fantastic athlete playing on the offense at wide receiver and plays basketball as well. As a junior, he caught 32 passes for 648 yards and four touchdowns. Last season, he had 30 tackles and one tackle for loss. His dad, Chris Edmonds, played professionally as a tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2001-2003. He also played for the Frankfurt Galaxy of the now-defunct NFL Europe in 2004. So, he comes from a great athletic background.<\/p>\n<p>Alabama added its first commitment for 2026 in late December when four-star <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/zyan-gibson-46144653\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zyan Gibson<\/a> signed. <em>247Sports <\/em>lists Gibson as an athlete, but his position in high school was cornerback. Gibson is from Gadsden City, Alabama, and is ranked as the fifth-best player in Alabama. Like Edmonds, Gibson has also played as a wide receiver on offense. For the Gadsden City Titans, he caught four passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns during his junior season. While a hard commit to the Crimson Tide, Gibson does have an official visit scheduled to Tennessee in June.<\/p>\n<h3>Edge Defenders<\/h3>\n<p>Alabama has picked up commitments from a pair of three-star edge rushers. In February, <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/jamarion-matthews-46150340\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jamarian Matthews<\/a> announced his commitment to the Crimson Tide. He will play his final year of high school football in Gainesville, Georgia, after transferring from Harvest Sparkman in Alabama. <em>247Sports <\/em>has Matthews ranked as the No. 34 edge rusher for 2026. As a junior, he had 57 tackles and 29 tackles for loss. He was a terror for opposing passers, collecting 17 sacks and 15 quarterback hurries. The rest of the Harvest Sparkman team only had 16.5 sacks combined.<\/p>\n<p>The latest commitment for Alabama is <a  href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/kamhariyan-johnson-46152434\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kamhariyan Johnson<\/a> from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He is ranked as the 17<sup>th<\/sup> best player in Alabama and 42<sup>nd<\/sup> among edge rushers. He does have official visits to Auburn, Clemson, Ole Miss, Miami, and South Carolina this summer. It will be worth paying attention to if he sticks with his April commitment. Alabama added four-star edge rusher Justin Hill for the 2025 class. Alabama recruiting for 2026 has not just focused on the defense, though.<\/p>\n<h3>Offensive Line Future<\/h3>\n<p>Alabama added four players to the offensive line with the 2025 recruiting class. They added five-star player Michael Carroll. They also added four-stars Jackson Lloyd and Mal Waldrop, plus three-star Micah Debose. The Crimson Tide continues to look to the future of the offensive line with the commitment of three-star inside offensive lineman Chris Booker. He is from Atlanta, Georgia, where he plays at Hapeville Charter. He is ranked as the 37<sup>th<\/sup> best player in Georgia, 24<sup>th<\/sup> at his position. Booker made his commitment on February 20<sup>th<\/sup>. The 2026 Alabama recruiting class looks to add to its good start.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alabama recruiting for 2026 has gotten off to a good start. Alabama finished ranked fourth by 247Sports with their 2025 class, but the work did not stop there, though. Head coach Kalen DeBoer and staff have already added five commits to the 2026 class. Alabama has one five-star, a four-star, and a trio of three-stars [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2751,"featured_media":73891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17,3],"tags":[34404,33428,35,35078,35080,8115,35079],"class_list":["post-73884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-sec","tag-2025-recruiting","tag-2026-recruiting","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-chris-edmonds","tag-jackson-lloyd","tag-kalen-deboer","tag-michael-carroll"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73884"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73893,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73884\/revisions\/73893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}