Tide’s 2026 IOL Commit Wraps Up Recruitment Following Visit to Tuscaloosa

Alabama has made significant progress in its 2026 recruiting class this month, securing four commitments. The list includes four-star offensive tackle Samuelu Utu, four-star quarterback Jett Thomalla, three-star defensive lineman JJ Finch, and three-star running back Javari Bennet, who committed today. This month, Alabama has successfully flipped two commitments: Thomalla, who was previously committed to Iowa State, and Bennet, who was formerly committed to Illinois.

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The Crimson Tide made this class stronger on Sunday with the announcement of Chris Booker, who is a four-star offensive lineman out of the 2026 class, who has been committed to the Tide since February 20th, making him the second addition to this class, with Zyan Gibson being the Tide’s first commitment back on December 24th. On Sunday, Booker told On3’s Hayes Fawcett that the Alabama interior offensive lineman commit would be shutting down his recruitment and would not be visiting any more schools moving forward.

This past month saw Booker take Official Visits to Georgia (May 30th), Ole Miss (June 6th), Florida (June 13th), and, of course, Alabama, where he was on campus this past weekend for the Tide’s final weekend of hosting prospects for this summer. Booker told Fawcett on Sunday, “I’m home, nobody does it like Bama!” following his weekend trip to Tuscaloosa, which was his fifth visit to the program’s campus.

Booker is ranked as the No.22 inside offensive lineman, No.30 player out of Georgia, and No.272nd Overall prospect in the 2026 class according to On3. The rising senior from Hapeville Charter out of Atlanta Georgia has been close with the Tide early in his recruitment with Alabama being the first program that the four-star offensive lineman visited which was back on November 16th during the Tide’s blowout 52-7 victory over Mercer with Booker coming back two weeks later for Alabama’s 28-14 Iron Bowl victory over Auburn on November 30th.

This is huge for the Crimson Tide with the 6-foot-3 285 pound offensive lineman staying locked in and committed to the Tide giving Kalen DeBoer and his crew time to ramp up it’s recruitment on the rest of the targets for this 2026 class which currently ranks 11th in the SEC, and fifth in the SEC according to On3 with the Tide currently having nine commits in the 2026 class. The complete list is listed below.

• No.2 CB, Jorden Edmonds (Committed on March 26th)
• No.11 CB, Zyan Gibson (Committed on December 24th)
• No.14 EDGE, Jamarion Matthews (Committed on February 21st)
• No.13 QB, Jett Thomalla (Committed on June 17th)
• No.14 IOL, Samuelu Utu (Committed on June 9th)
• Four-Star IOL, Chris Booker (Committed on February 20th)
• Four-Star DL, Kamhariyan Johnson (Committed on April 12th)
• No.3 Prospect out of Indian, JJ Finch (Committed on June 22nd)
• Three-Star RB, Javari Barnett (Committed on June 23rd)

Booker shutting down his recruitment might not be as exciting news as the Tide are awaiting commitments from a few five-stars in the upcoming month, but in the world of today’s recruiting being able to keep a prospect like Booker who is being recruited by some of the biggest schools in the conference shows a lot on the teams message, and how much love that prospect has for the program and the coaching staff with DeBoer not only showing he can recruit with the best of them, he’s also proving that it’s not going to be an easy task to poach a commit from the head coach.

DeBoer and the Crimson Tide will be expecting decisions from nine prospects in the next couple of weeks, with all nine of these recruits being blue-chip prospects, and all of these guys have been on campus several times, including this month for Official Visits. The complete list of prospects is listed below.

• Five-Star RB, Ezavier Crowell (June 26th)
• Five-Star S, Jireh Edwards (July 5th)
• Five-Star LB, Xavier Griffin (June 29th)
• Five-Star WR, Cederian Morgan (July 2nd)
• Four-Star TE, Mack Sutter (June 26th)
• Four-Star LB, Nick Abrams II (July 16th)
• Four-Star WR, Kenny Darby (LSU commit, Decision will be on July 4th)
• Four-Star OL, Deacon Schmitt (June 28th)
• Four-Star ATH, Roman Voss (June 23rd)

The next few weeks will be busy for the Tide as they await these decisions, with Voss expected to make his decision today between Alabama and his in-state college, Minnesota.

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