With 19 commits and including four composite five-stars, Alabama’s 2026 recruiting class ranks No. 5 in the country, but Kalen DeBoer isn’t done yet. The second-year head coach of the Crimson Tide is after another in-state five-star target, and it seems that all of Alabama is helping in his recruiting efforts.
Tank Jones is the No. 16 player in the country according to 247Sports Composite Rankings, and a priority target for DeBoer and his staff, who visited Tuscaloosa on June 20. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound edge rusher from Mobile, Alabama, has yet to set a commitment date, but that hasn’t stopped service workers in his hometown from trying to sway him towards the Tide.
Talk about an all hands on deck recruiting approach…
— Brett Greenberg (@BrettGreenberg_) July 14, 2025
No. 2 player in Alabama has the Crimson Tide among his final three ahead of late July/August expected decision.
📸 @Tank_Jones251 pic.twitter.com/giR3W5X5Lm
The whole state of Alabama is helping the Crimson Tide recruit Tank Jones
Whether it was the DoorDash driver who delivered the food or the Wingstop worker who prepared it, somebody is a big Alabama fan who doesn’t want their favorite team to miss out on one of the best players in the 2026 recruiting class. And for all the talent in Alabama’s class so far, the Tide could use a player like Jones to round out the high-level talent on defense.
Alabama’s top recruit in the class is five-star wide receiver Cederian Morgan. Still, the other three five-stars are on the defensive side of the ball: safety Jireh Edwards, cornerback Jordan Edmonds, and linebacker Xavier Griffin.
DeBoer has done an excellent job restocking the talent in the secondary after Nick Saban’s retirement led to many major transfer portal departures. However, he and general manager Courtney Morgan haven’t done quite as much to address the defensive line. Texas A&M transfer LT Overton will lead the group this season, but most of the program’s top defensive recruits have been defensive backs.
The 2026 class features Griffin, who can play off-ball linebacker and edge rusher, and four-star Jamarion Matthews, but Tank Jones could be the true No. 1 edge that Alabama has missed since Dallas Turner left for the NFL in 2024. While that’s not a long drought, it’s one the Tide would like to end to field an elite SEC defense and dominate in the trenches as they did for so many years under Saban.
Whether this Alabama fan from DoorDash or Wingstop was thinking about the program’s need for an elite edge rusher to build the defensive line around, or just knew that Tank Jones was a five-star with Alabama as a finalist, this stunt certainly didn’t hurt Jones’s chances of heading to Tuscaloosa.