All signs are pointing to a former 4-star Alabama commit making his way to Miami

4-star in-state offensive lineman Jatori Williams was an early commitment to Alabama for the 2027 class, pledging to Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide in late September of last year, quickly following Alabama's road win in Athens over Georgia.

Just over two months later, Williams reopened his recruitment, and while Alabama has remained "in the running", it has felt like a major uphill climb for the Tide to have a shot at bringing him back into the fold.

Now, Williams is set to commit to a school again on May 22nd, live on the Rivals recruiting channel. Alabama is among five finalists, joined by Georgia, Florida State, Kentucky, and Miami:

Alabama a finalist in name only for 4-star OL Jatori Williams

While Alabama is officially a finalist in his recruitment, there's no use in getting your hopes up that he's going to end up back in the Crimson Tide's class. Per his 247 timeline, Williams has not even visited Tuscaloosa since his decommitment in December. Among his slate of official visits scheduled, all of his finalists are on the docket - except Alabama. That should tell you everything you need to know.

The Crimson Tide is not seriously in the running for Williams down the stretch, and per the On3 RPM, the Phenix City native is trending heavily toward joining Mario Cristobal and Miami.

It's hard to blame Williams for that. There's nobody developing linemen at this level better than Cristobal and the Hurricanes. The former Alabama offensive line coach has built quite a reputation as a recruiter and developer for that position, and you won't win many head-to-head recruiting battles for the big uglies up front if he's your competition.

But his loss also isn't the end of the world for DeBoer and Alabama, either.

Alabama added 11 new offensive linemen this past offseason between the high school class and the Transfer Portal. All 11 have multiple years of eligibility remaining. Because of that, this was always going to be a smaller recruiting class up front than the previous two cycles.

Alabama may only sign one or two high school linemen for the 2027 recruiting class. That feels strange, considering conventional wisdom used to be that you effectively wanted to sign an entire offensive line in every class, but this is a different day and age with the portal.

Prospects such as Ismael Camara, Albert Simien, Antonio Berry, and Antwan Jackson remain high on Alabama's priority list for offensive linemen in this class. If DeBoer and new OL coach Adrian Klemm can reel in one or two from that group, the sting of missing on Williams will fade like a distant memory.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow