Alabama Football: Tide aces recruiting test as other SEC schools fail

As Alabama football set a new team ranking, recruiting record, some other SEC schools fell way behind with 2021 signing classes.

The Alabama football recruiting powerhouse built by Nick Saban has won another championship. College football’s all-time greatest recruiting class was achieved Wednesday with two National Signing Day additions.

The Alabama Crimson Tide staff will continue pursuit of one more 5-Star, defensive end, J.T. Tulmoloau.

National Signing Day no longer signals the end of roster rebuilds for teams. The transfer portal has so fundamentally changed college football, new players are frequently added throughout the spring and the summer.

How teams do in traditional recruiting defines how important JUCO and Portal transfers are for each team. One team that must be transfer-heavy is the Auburn Tigers. The Tigers 2021 class is only 16 players. Two are JUCO transfers and the class is heavy with 12, 3-Star recruits. Excluding Lee Hunter, ranked as the No. 80 overall player and the JUCOs, the player rankings for the Tigers range from No. 211 overall to No. 669, to players with no ranking. In addition, the Tigers gained an immediately eligible transfer from Northwestern.

The Auburn Tigers have the SECs No. 11 class and No. 30 overall. Doing even less well than the Tigers are Kentucky at No. 32, Vanderbilt at No. 49 and South Carolina at No. 77. The Wildcats added 18 new players and South Carolina added only 13 players in its 2021 class. The Commodores added 23 players, but as is the norm for Vandy, their average player rating was the lowest in the SEC.

There are still available players for teams to sign out of high school. Along with Tulmoloau, 4-Star, wide receiver, Brian Thomas Jr. did not sign on Wednesday. The talented wideout was a top prospect for the Crimson Tide, but he waited too long and Nick Saban no longer had room. He will probably stay in-state and join LSU, with Bengal Tigers’ fans claiming their team ‘stole’ one from the Crimson Tide.

Other SEC school, 2021 Team Rankings are Georgia at No. 3; LSU, No. 4; Texas A&M, No. 7; Florida, No. 13; Tennessee, No. 16; Ole Miss, No. 18; Arkansas, No. 24; Mississippi State, No. 25 and Missouri at No. 28. The Tennessee class looks stronger than it is because, like Auburn, it is loaded with 3-Star recruits.

Three stars and below, meaning high school players ranked No. 362 and above are what is left for schools to pick over (other than Tulmoloau and Thomas Jr.). That is why teams will add many players from the Transfer Portal.

The team rankings in this post are from the 247Sports Composite. The latest on J.T. Tulmoloau is he will wait until the current dead period ends so he can visit the Alabama football staff, along with a few other schools.