Alabama Lands Commitment from Top Offensive Target

Four-star receiver Osani Gayles announced his commitment to Alabama.

It seemed the IMG Academy prospect had been trending towards Alabama, and he now becomes Alabama’s 13th commitment in the 2027 class. He picked the Crimson Tide over Tennessee, Washington, Stanford, and Notre Dame.

Stock has been rising for the four-star receiver after great performances at OT7, an elite 7-on-7 league with some of the top players in the entire country, as he took home the MVP award of the finals. He also recently competed at Nike’s “The Opening,” and Rivals selected him as one of its top 10 performers of day one of the competition.

He will now look to help his IMG Academy squad to a national championship alongside fellow four-star receiver Eric McFarland and 2028 Georgia quarterback commit Jayden Wade.

More Recruiting News

Gayles is one of two major receiver targets for Alabama. The other is five-star Monshun Sales, and the Crimson Tide is competing for his commitment alongside LSU, Texas, and Indiana. He grew up a huge fan of Alabama, and he is from Indiana, so the Hoosiers and Crimson Tide each have a slight upper hand that Texas and LSU do not. Still, I think the most underrated piece in Sales’ recruitment is fellow five-star Easton Royal. He is currently committed to Texas but is also being heavily targeted by LSU. Despite Sales saying he would love to play with Royal after his Texas official visit, the Longhorns likely will not be able to afford paying NIL to both of them. But if Royal flips to LSU, it frees up a lot of NIL money for Texas to give to Sales, which could steer his decision towards Austin.

A similar situation is happening with five-star defensive back Hayden Stepp. Stepp announced a top three of Alabama, Oregon, and California, but all indicators suggest this is a two-team battle between Alabama and Oregon. Like Sales with the Royal situation, Oregon landed a commitment from four-star Ai’King Hall in April, so the Ducks could not pay Stepp as much. Then, Miami swooped in and flipped Hall in May, freeing up more money for Stepp, who now seems to be trending towards ending up in Eugene.

Finally, Alabama missed out on 2027 target Junior Tuupo as the four-star defensive back committed to Texas yesterday. Tuupo visited Alabama just last weekend and plays not too far from Tuscaloosa at Thompson High School. Four-star Alabama quarterback commit Trent Seaborn plays with Tuupo at Thompson, and he did his best to bring him to Alabama before he ultimately decided on the Longhorns.

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