UPDATE: Alabama Recruiting: National Signing Day Open Thread

National Signing Day 2021 has arrived with little fanfare. However, there could be fireworks for the Tide. The groundhog stuck his head out his front door and foresaw another decade of Alabama football dominance.

The Crimson Tide are keeping their eyes on the following:

BAMA TARGETS

• Camar Wheaton RB (Garland, TX) - Alabama commit will sign at 8:30 am. The ceremony is supposed to stream on a YouTube channel, but it’s unclear which one. UPDATE: This is the correct video here.
  CB’s pick: Bama; SIGNED WITH ALABAMA, LOI RECEIVED!
• Terrion Arnold S (Tallahassee, FL) - Alabama, UGA, Florida - Announcing during the 3 o’clock hour CT on ESPN2’s Signing Day Special.
  CB’s pick: Bama; SIGNED WITH ALABAMA, LOI RECEIVED!!!
• Brian Thomas WR (Walker, LA) - Alabama, Texas A&M, LSU, UGA - Is supposed to announce his decision today but there has been some speculation that he may delay his announcement. If Bama gets Arnold and Wheaton, the choice might be made for him.
  CB’s pick: LSU; Did not sign.
• J.T. Tuimoloau SDE (Sammamish, WA) - Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, UW - Not expected to sign today. I am SO over this guy.
  CB’s pick: anOSU, eventually. I’m starting to think he stays out west, either Oregon or UW.
• Mystery Recruiting - You can never relax around the G.O.A.T.! Keep an eye on Destyn Hill (see below).

OTHERS OF INTEREST

• #44 overall, RB LJ Johnson (Cypress, TX) - TAMU, Texas, Oklahoma.
  CB’s pick: TAMU; SIGNED WITH TAMU
• #48 overall, OLB Raesjon Davis (Santa Ana, CA) - Southern Cal, LSU.
  CB’s pick: So Cal; SIGNED WITH SOUTHERN CAL
• #59 overall, DT Tywone Malone (Oradell, NJ) - Ole Miss, TAMU. Also signing during the ESPN2 Signing Day Special.
  CB’s pick: OM; SIGNED WITH OM
• #112 overall, WR Destyn Hill (New Orleans, LA) - FSU, LSU with an outside shot at Alabama. 9:30pm announcement.
  CB’s pick: FSU; SIGNED WITH FSU

PWO

Preferred walk-ons are hard to track but we know these long snappers have accepted offers:

• Kneeland Hibbett (Florence, AL) is the grandson of Alabama WR legend Dennis Homan. So you know they weren’t trying to name him after Tennessee’s stadium.
• Carter Short (Hoover, AL) - A long snapper named “Short”? I feel a pun-fest coming on.

WALLY BOB

Your favorite 2022 commit has now picked up offers from Marshall, ULM, Penn State and Flawduh. Tide fans should not be too concerned about the Litany Pylons or Jorts U. But Marshall and ULM might be trouble. Those two schools will admit any living breathing human who can sign their own name.

Once upon a time there was a 4-star running back named Mike Ford. He committed to Alabama, but did not academically qualify. But USF said “come on down!” and he signed with them and pissed away a shot at the NFL. More recently, linebacker Jaquan Yulee couldn’t qualify and Bama wanted to place him at a juco. Marshall told him if he could make it 75% of the way through his ABC’s they would enroll him the next day. Career.pissed.away.

And then there is the Kirby Smart shenanigans with DB Nadab Joseph. Bama told the four star he could not enroll early and asked him to wait until February to sign. But ol’ Bowl Cut said “mean ol’ Saban. C’mon down to Athens. We’ll git you in.” They didn’t. He still had to go to juco and then signed with Nebraska last year. He could have gotten a ring this year. Instead... pissing away...

ROLL TIDE

#NSD21

We will update this page as events unfold.