In the recruiting world, it's hard to count a prospect as part of a class until they officially sign the paperwork. In today's climate of the Transfer Portal, even that's not always good enough.
In-state 4-star CB Zyan Gibson has been committed to Alabama since December, but that hasn't stopped him from scheduling a second straight visit to an SEC rival. After taking an official visit to Ole Miss last weekend, Gibson announced on Tuesday that he would be in Knoxville to check out Tennessee this weekend.
🚨NEWS🚨 Alabama 4-star CB commit Zyan Gibson will take an official visit to Tennessee this weekend🍊https://t.co/sn0dIxn9aC pic.twitter.com/2m792HLN39
— On3 Recruits (@On3Recruits) June 10, 2025
Gibson is a consensus 4-star prospect and is ranked as the No. 4 CB and No. 48 overall player in the 247 composite.
Gibson has been one of the cornerstones of Alabama's recruiting class thus far. He was the first player to join the 2026 class when he committed on Christmas Eve. The Crimson Tide only has six commitments to date and would rather not be moving backwards when they have built up so much momentum for what appears to be a big summer on the horizon.
There's no need to panic about Zyan Gibson taking visits...yet
Gibson has said and done the right things since being committed to the Crimson Tide. His commitment seems solid, and just because he has chosen to take a couple of visits doesn't mean he isn't solid with Alabama.
As a teenage kid, it's hard to pass up opportunities to be wined and dined. These are free trips where programs pull out all the stops for you. You are made to feel like a priority. You only get to go through this process once.
One big thing Alabama still has working in its favor is regardless of how well the visit goes in Knoxville this weekend or Oxford last, Gibson is slated to be part of Alabama's massive recruiting weekend on June 20th.
Kalen DeBoer has smartly scheduled the elite in-state prospects all to be in Tuscaloosa that weekend. Gibson will be joined by the three guys who rank higher than him in the state recruiting rankings: WR Cederian Morgan, Edge Anthony "Tank" Jones, and RB Ezavier Crowell.
After a disappointing in-state cycle in 2025, DeBoer and the staff are making a big push for a strong finish in the state of Alabama for 2026. He will undoubtedly put on the full-court press for all four of those prospects, pushing them to be the backbone of the Tide's class.