Happy Monday, everyone. As you know, Nate Oats added a big man over the weekend to round out his roster. Emilee Smarr has some notes on how it went down.
Four-star prospect Collins Onyejiaka took a tour of Tuscaloosa on Wednesday, June 18, then a member of the 2026 recruiting class. By Friday, he’d been swayed to reclassify to the class of 2025, per On3’s Joe Tipton, who shocked social media with the announcement that the 6-foot-10 center will play for Alabama in the 2025-26 season.
According to Dushawn London of 247Sports, Onyejiaka was recently considering visits to BYU, Indiana, Providence and Georgetown, the latter of which the Newman School (Boston, M.A.) student made a trip to earlier this year.
On the football side of things, David Ballou and Kalen DeBoer seem pleased with where the team is physically about six weeks away from fall camp.
“What I saw a year ago is our guys will just go and go and go and go,” DeBoer said on Beat Everyone. “It’s a long year. It’s a long season. We’ve been pushing the guys from winter to spring. Even when we got done with spring ball, we were still hitting it hard for a few weeks leading right up to finals. What I want to make sure of is our guys, they’re going to go. I know they’re going to work in the month of May. We have a program for them. But what they like to do, and I’ve seen is they want to go to their trainer. They’re excited about the direction that we’re going come the end of this spring. They go work with specific people. You’ve just got to make sure you’re not overtraining because when they come here, they’ve got to be where we need them to be to hit the ground running in June.”
Based on what Ballou expressed to DeBoer, the players returned to Tuscaloosa more than ready.
The Tide landed a DL commitment over the weekend.
Only days after landing a commitment from a 2026 quarterback, the Alabama Crimson Tide have added yet another name to their class in defensive lineman JJ Finch.
Finch announced his commitment to Alabama on Sunday afternoon, and is now the eighth member of the Crimson Tide’s 2026 class.
According to the 247Sports Composite recruiting rankings, Finch is currently considered as the nation’s No. 448 overall player in the 2026 class, as well as the No. 50 defensive lineman nationally. A three-star prospect, Finch is also considered as the No. 2 player in the state of Indiana where he attends Warren Central High School.
With the new salary cap, you will see more three stars signing at big programs. You simply can’t pay big money for bench players consistently.
SI is previewing Tennessee this week.
Aguilar had 3,003 yards and 24 passing touchdowns last season at App State, but he also threw 14 interceptions. Because of when Iamaleava left, Tennessee will still have a fresh QB competition going entering fall camp.
Not only will Tennessee be working with a new quarterback, but the Volunteers will have to replace the production of 2024 SEC Offensive Player of the Year in running back Dylan Sampson, who is now in the NFL. He rushed for nearly 1500 yards and 24 touchdowns last season.
Tennessee does return Sampson’s top-two backups: Peyton Lewis (339 yards and three touchdowns in 2024) and DeSean Bishop (455 yards and three touchdowns in 2024.)
If you care what Pawwwwwl thinks, here are his top 5 contenders for the season.
“I’m starting to think who I would put in there,” Finebaum said. “I’m going to go through a couple of names: Texas, Alabama, Oregon, Penn State and Clemson. I totally agree with you.”
However, ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) reveals a different perspective. The FPI is designed to measure team strength and predict future performance. According to the FPI, the top five favorites for the 2025 national championship are Texas, the Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State Buckeyes, Alabama and Penn State.
Last, imagine saddling your kid with this one.
A look at Lampron’s page on Bowling Green’s roster displays his name as Gideon ESPN Lampron.
No, that’s not a nickname. Nor is it a familial name. Gideon’s father, Marty Lampron, named his child after The Worldwide Leader in Sports.
Speaking to the Dayton Daily News, Lampron said that inspiration for Gideon’s middle name came after he tried naming his first-born son after a different sports icon.
‘He has a brother who’s 10 years older named Gabriel,’ Marty told the outlet. ‘I grew up in Boston. I went for months trying to talk my wife into letting me name him Larry Bird. It didn’t go well.’
You’re a weirdo, Marty.
That’s about it for today. Have a great week.
Roll Tide.
