Zyan Gibson is the second-highest-ranked player in Alabama’s 2026 recruiting class, and while that’s not saying as much as it normally would with only six commits midway through June, the cornerback from Gadsen, Alabama is still considered a top 100 player in the country, ranked 46th by 247Sports Composite, and a player that the Tide cannot afford to lose.
Gibson has remained committed to Alabama as he navigates the murky waters of the official visit season, but he gave Tide fans reason for concern after his trip to Knoxville this past weekend, telling Ryan Callahan of GoVols247, “Every time I come up, they show love. It never changed from Day One.”
🗣 "Every time I come up, they show love. It never changed from Day One."
— GoVols247 (@GoVols247) June 15, 2025
Elite Alabama cornerback commit Zyan Gibson returns to Tennessee, says Vols 'want me really bad' ⬇️https://t.co/yCysjNjQvq
Tennessee could be pushing to flip Zyan Gibson after his trip to Knoxville
According to 247Sports, this official visit was Gibson’s eighth trip to Tennessee since the Volunteers offered him back in October of 2023. Gibson has been committed to Alabama since December 2024, but has left his recruitment open and which leaves the door open for the Vols to sway him from DeBoer’s class.
Many of Alabama’s top targets in the 2026 class have scheduled their commitment dates at the end of June or beginning of July, so good news could be on the way soon, and plenty of it. However, it can be difficult for a fanbase to remain optimistic when its team is stuck at just six commits and a class that ranks outside the top 50 in the country well into the spring. Then, if DeBoer lost Gibson to an SEC rival, either Tennessee or Ole Miss, where he also took an official visit, it would amplify the concern about the second-year head coach’s recruiting acumen.
DeBoer appeared to silence those critics by landing the No. 3 class in the country in 2025, headlined by five-star quarterback Keelon Russell. However, memories are short in college football, especially at a program that hasn’t had to wait long for another national championship over the past two decades, so if DeBoer and his staff can’t assemble another top-tier class, the pressure to make the College Football Playoff will only increase, if that’s even possible at this point.
Alabama has plenty of depth at cornerback, so in a typical offseason, a comment like this from a four-star commit would not be cause for concern, but in 2025 with no Nick Saban around, well, it’s a different story.