Kalen DeBoer just sent Alabama rocketing up the national recruiting rankings with a dominant run through the end of June. The Crimson Tide now sit with the No. 5 class in the country in 2025, and aren’t done yet. Still, despite waiting on multiple commitments in 2025 with signing day still months away, DeBoer, general manager Courtney Morgan, and their staff have their eyes on 2027.
Ladamian Guyton is the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2027 class, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound edge rusher from Savannah, Georgia. However, despite developing right under the nose of Kirby Smart, Guyton is expected to leave SEC country and head to Lubbock Texas, where Texas Tech has emerged as a recruiting and transfer portal force on the backs of Texas billionaires like Cody Campbell.
On Monday, Rivals’ Sam Spiegelman logged a prediction for the Red Raiders to land Guyton, besting Alabama, Georgia, Florida State, and others with significant interest.
NEW: Rivals’ @samspiegs has logged an expert prediction for Texas Tech to land 2027 5-star EDGE LaDamion Guyton🌵
— Rivals (@Rivals) July 7, 2025
Guyton is Rivals’ No. 1 overall recruit in the 2027 class.
Read: https://t.co/rpvnhTTjEb pic.twitter.com/BrOWdsEQIX
Ladamian Guyton predicted to land with Texas Tech in 2027 recruiting class
Texas Tech isn’t quite assembling SEC-caliber recruiting classes, and the Red Raiders likely have to pay a bit of a premium to pry top recruits away from the SEC and Big Ten, but the efforts of oil magnates like Campbell have shaken up the recruiting and transfer portal landscape.
Texas Tech’s 2025 transfer portal class ranked No. 2 in the country and included a significant deal for Stanford star pass-rusher David Bailey. Now, the program’s 2026 recruiting class is headlined by Mansfield, Texas five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo, the No. 7 overall recruit in the country.
Both Bailey and Ojo were major additions, but Guyton would be on a different level, especially going into Georgia state lines to land him, surpassing Ojo as the highest-rated recruit in program history. Class of 2024 five-star wide receiver Micah Hudson, who transferred back to the program after a brief offseason stint at Texas A&M, is the second-highest. Before that, it was 2015 4-star Breiden Fehoko in 2015, so Texas Tech being regularly in the mix for five-stars is a recent development.
The NIL era allowed the oil money of Texas to flex its muscle in college sports, and that’s seemingly going to continue into the revenue-sharing era when all additional NIL deals must pass through the NCAA clearinghouse. That could allow deep-pocketed programs like Texas Tech to make inroads on SEC recruiting grounds, but it won’t be enough to shift the balance of power away from the sport’s preeminent conference.
DeBoer does not need Guyton to assemble an elite 2027 class. This summer, he dispelled any concerns about his recruiting acumen, if they somehow lingered after his No. 3 overall 2025 class. Still, if Texas Tech is suddenly the favorite for the top player in the country, that’s a significant development for the program and league as a whole to monitor.