It has been a big weekend in Tuscaloosa with a plethora of blue-chip official visitors in town. Kalen DeBoer and company have made their best pitches as they look to put together another elite recruiting class in 2026 to follow up the top-five class they signed in the last cycle.
News will continue to trickle in today and tomorrow on how the weekend went, but late Saturday night, news started coming in that Alabama made a big impression on 4-star OT Sam Utu from Orange, California.
Heading into the weekend, Washington had the lead in On3's RPM and had a prediction to land Utu on 247. Now, Alabama has picked up a couple of predictions and has taken a commanding lead in the RPM. The RPM gives the Crimson Tide an 86.6% chance of landing the talented offensive line prospect.
At 6-foot-4, 320 pounds, Utu is a consensus 4-star prospect and ranked as the No. 176 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class. Experts indicate that Utu is versatile and could play tackle or slide inside to guard on the next level. This staff has prioritized linemen with positional versatility the last two cycles.
Alabama still has work to do to land his commitment, and DeBoer and OL coach Chris Kapilovic will undoubtedly be pushing for a verbal and for him to skip out on his remaining scheduled visits. Utu has already visited Washington and SMU, and has visits lined up to Tennessee and Texas the next two weekends.
Alabama is building another elite offensive line class
Even after a late flip of Ty Haywood to Michigan, Alabama brought in an elite offensive line class last year, headlined by 5-star Michael Carroll and 4-star Jackson Lloyd. Kapilovic and company are looking to do it again.
Alabama already has a commitment from composite 4-star IOL Chris Booker.
The Tide is also a finalist for 4-star OT Malakai Lee from Hawaii. Lee just took an official visit to Alabama last weekend, and DeBoer and the staff reportedly made a big impression on him as well. Lee is in Austin for a visit to Texas this weekend and still has an official set up with Michigan in a couple of weeks.
Momentum continues to build for Alabama on the recruiting trail. The run on commitments is coming, and the first domino should fall pretty soon. That domino could be Utu coming off his official to the Capstone. Alabama has put itself in an excellent position to land the California product.