Alabama's 2026 secondary class could be DeBoer’s biggest recruiting flex yet

It would be tough for any coach across the country to assemble a more talented group of 2026 recruits for an official visit weekend than the 11 players that Kalen DeBoer brought to Tuscaloosa last weekend. There was a lot of pressure on DeBoer, who entered the weekend with just five commits in the 2026 class, but by all accounts, the weekend couldn’t have gone better. 

Alabama already landed a commitment from four-star offensive lineman Sam Utu, who was expected to land with Washington heading into the weekend, and now Steve Wiltfong of On3 is predicting that five-star safety Jireh Edwards will join the Crimson Tide. 

Kalen DeBoer angling for loaded defensive back class after promising update on 5-star recruit

Edwards isn’t the only player that Wiltfong referenced in the short clip above. He also mentioned another five-star safety, Jett Washington, who was in Tuscaloosa for the first official visit weekend of the summer. Washington, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound product of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, has been heavily connected to the Tide throughout the recruiting process. Landing both would be massive for defensive coordinator Kane Wommack’s unit, but that may not be all. 

When DeBoer arrived in Tuscaloosa, one of his toughest tasks was maintaining the level of secondary play that the Crimson Tide enjoyed for so many years under Nick Saban. 11 of the 40 outgoing transfers in the 2024 offseason came from the defensive backfield, including 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year Caleb Downs, and star cornerback Trey Amos. 

DeBoer and Wommack scrambled with the additions of Keon Sabb, Domani Jackson, DaShawn Jones, Kameron Howard, and King Mack, but a packwork secondary of transfers and holdovers was far from the Alabama standard. The 2026 class could get the defensive backfield back on track. 

Adding two five-star safeties would be enough to provide serious long-term promise for the Alabama secondary, but DeBoer and his staff are still in the mix for five-star Brandon Arrington, the No. 10 player in the country according to 247Sports Composite and the country’s top cornerback by those rankings. 

It may seem like a long shot, but Alabama could realistically bring in the No. 3 and No. 4 safeties in the 2026 class with the No. 1 and 2 cornerbacks; Arrington and five-star commit Jorden Edmonds. That’s without even mentioning four-star cornerback commit Zyan Gibson, who is a top 50 player in the country. 

Kalen DeBoer is an offense-minded head coach, not the defensive genius that Saban was, and yet he’s on the verge of constructing the best secondary recruiting class in the country by far, which would arrive on the heels of 2025 five-stars Dijon Lee Jr. and Ivan Taylor.