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Alabama Has No. 1 Recruiting Class According to Sports Illustrated All-American

SIAA dubs the Crimson Tide as winners of the Early Signing Period after historic haul
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After adding a pass-rusher in Keanu Koht and electrifying play-maker in JoJo Earle, the University of Alabama was dubbed as the top recruiting class in the country, surpassing Ohio State, according to Sports Illustrated All-American.

The Crimson Tide ended up signing 24 student-athletes on Wednesday, the first day of the Early Signing Period, while the Buckeyes only managed to sign 21 and not flip anyone else's pledges like coach Nick Saban and company did with Koht and Earle from rival LSU. 

Alabama has 10 SI99 prospects in its signing class, which includes the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked offensive tackles in Tommy Brockermeyer and JC Latham, respectively, Damon Payne as the No. 2 interior defensive lineman, Christian Leary as the No. 2 slot receiver, and Ga'Quincy McKinstry as the No. 4 cornerback in the country.

"A lot of people did a really, really good job," Saban said in his Wednesday evening press conference. "You know, we recruit as a team here at Alabama. We got a lot of support in the university community. We got a lot of support in every area of our program whether it’s personal development, academic support, sports medicine, sports science—things that we do to help develop players whether it’s nutrition, coaching staff, whatever it is and I know that we spend a tremendous amount of time on Zooms and videos to sort of create relationships that we didn’t have the opportunity to create by normal visits, but we identified the needs that we had in this class early on.

"I think we got some really good players at each one of those positions and we’re really pleased to have this group of players become a part of our program and a part of our team. So we’re excited about the future, we’re excited about helping them develop personally, academically and athletically so that they can have more success in life because they were involved in the program here."

It was the first time in the history of the Early Signing Period that Alabama signed all of its commitments going in to the first day, leaving no one unsigned.

Alabama’s 2021 Recruiting Class by the Numbers:

  • 24 commitments
  • 10 SI99 commitments
  • 6 commitments from Florida prospects
  • 5 in-state commitments
  • 6 commitments from Texas
  • 10 states represented
  • 13 defensive commitments
  • 11 offensive commitments
  • 10 trenchmen commitments
  • 6 DL commitments
  • 5 receiver commitments
  • 4 offensive line commitments
  • 8 premium position commitments
  • 5 position units with multiple commitments
  • 2 pairs of high school teammates (Brockeymeyer twins, Latham & Brooks)
  • 7 offensive skill position commitments
  • 8 defensive skill position commitments
  • 21 commitments from SEC footprint
  • 7 commitments from ACC footprint
  • 6 commitments from Big 12 footprint
  • 4 commitments from Big Ten footprint

Alabama’s 2021 SI99 Commitments

  1. OT Tommy Brockermeyer (No. 5)
  2. OT J.C. Latham (No. 11)
  3. IDL Damon Payne (No. 12)
  4. SLOT Christian Leary (No. 42)
  5. WR Jacorey Brooks (No. 46)
  6. CB Ga’Quincy McKinstry (No. 49)
  7. EDGE Dallas Turner (No. 69)
  8. RB Jojo Earle (No. 82)
  9. IDL Monkell Goodwine (No. 87)
  10. IOL James Brockermeyer (No. 98)