Kalen DeBoer Talks About Adding Length, Versatility in Secondary with Zyan Gibson and Jorden Edmonds

During early national signing day on Wednesday, the Alabama Crimson Tide added two of the top cornerbacks in the 2026 recruiting class, with five-star corner Jorden Edmonds and four-star corner Zyan Gibson.

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Edmonds stands at 6-foot-3 and 175 pounds, while Gibson stands at 6-foot and 174 pounds. The two cornerbacks are both ranked as top ten cornerbacks in the 2026 recruiting class, and Edmonds is ranked as the No. 1 cornerback in the class. On Wednesday afternoon, head coach Kalen DeBoer highlighted the playmaking of both.

"Coach Mo (Maurice Linguist) continues to knock it out of the park with the recruitment of our corners. You don't need a lot of them if you've got the right ones," DeBoer said. "To me, we got the right ones. Zyan [Gibson] and Jorden [Edmonds], 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 are very athletic, again, multi-sport guys. Jorden is a guy that can play both sides of the ball; he's very versatile that way. Just extremely athletic, guys that are instinctual, playmakers. Just guys that attack it and attack on the football field. Really excited about what Zyan and Jorden are gonna do. Those guys committed both over the summer, and we saw them as the two corners in the class moving forward, staying committed to that. That makes life easier for us, because we can focus on other areas. Appreciate these two, and really looking forward to them continuing on to do what we've been doing the last couple of years at the corner position."

Alabama's additions of Edmonds and Gibson, as well as five-star safety Jireh Edwards and three-star safety Rihyael Kelley, continue to add length to the Alabama secondary, which started when the Crimson Tide added former five-star cornerback Dijon Lee Jr. in the 2025 recruiting class.

Edmonds is a 6-foot-3, 175-pound cornerback; Gibson is a 6-foot, 174-pound cornerback, Edwards is a 6-foot-2, 210-pound safety, and Kelley is a 6-foot-3, 180-pound safety.

Alabama signed 20 players on early signing day for the 2026 recruiting class.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.