Alabama Lands Top Offensive Tackle In the Country

Alabama Football just got a big boost to their 2021 recruiting class with the commitment of five-star offensive tackle JC Latham. Latham is currently ranked as the #1 OT in the country by 247 Sports, after playing his high-school football at IMG Academy. He is rated the #1 player in the state of Florida and the #3 player in the nation according to 247Sports. He announced his commitment via Twitter today.

Alabama is no stranger to adding players from IMG . With the commitment of Latham they will now have four players from the academy; Trey Sanders (RB), Dylan Moses (LB), and Evan Neal (G).

Alabama football will have one of the top offensive lines in the country this year. They lost Jedrick Wills to the 2020 NFL Draft, but still return four out of their five offensive line starters from the 2019 season. The Tide is fortunate to have Alex Leatherwood  come back for his senior season at left tackle, after he received a first round talent grade. Latham will provide some incredible depth to the roster

Evan Neal will likely take over for Wills at right tackle, after be named as a Freshman All-American. This would mean that the Crimson Tide could potentially have two five-star IMG Ascenders as future starters on the offensive line.

The 6-foot-6, 305 pound Latham will  likely fit in well with newly hired Dr. Matt Rhea  and strength and conditioning coach David Ballou, who both spent time at IMG  in 2016. Ballou is certainly no stranger to developing successful lineman. In 2017 while he was at Notre Dame, he helped develop Quenton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey into Top 10 picks for the 2018 NFL Draft.

Landing Latham was a tough task for Nick Saban and his coaching staff, but they were able to beat out the likes of Ohio State, and LSU.  Latham had been considered a lock to go to Ohio State, but a late push by head recruiter Charles Huff, was able to get the job done.