Alabama, SEC again dominate national football recruiting

Alabama applied icing to its recruiting cake Wednesday, adding three football signees to the 24 from December's early period.

All three newcomers - defensive tackle Ishmael Sopsher of Amite, Louisiana, defensive end Byron Young of Laurel, Mississippi, and running back Keilan Robinson of Washington, D.C. - are ESPN top-300 prospects. Alabama has 24 total ESPN 300 signees, setting a record for one program in a recruiting cycle.

"This day is an accumulation of a lot of hard work by a lot of people," Alabama coach Nick Saban said late Wednesday afternoon in a news conference. "You don't always get all the people, and you don't always satisfy all the needs, but we were really fortunate this year to satisfy a lot of the needs we have.

"Having 15 early enrollees is really going to be helpful."

Alabama finished with the nation's No. 1 signing class, according to the 247Sports.com team rankings, with Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M and LSU rounding out the top five. The Crimson Tide likely prevented LSU from climbing even higher by snagging Sopsher, a 6-foot-4, 334-pounder who racked up 78 tackles, 35 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, eight forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries as an Amite High senior.

Sopsher was rated the No. 47 player nationally on the 247Sports composite rankings.

"I just wanted to be coached under Nick Saban," Sopsher said on ESPN2. "My biggest priority in picking a school was being comfortable, getting a great education, and being coached to where I could get to the next level. That's why I chose Alabama."

Young, the No. 77 prospect nationally according to 247Sports, amassed 125 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss and 17 sacks for West Jones High in Laurel. Robinson is the nation's No. 15 running back and is from the same high school (St. John's) as current Alabama redshirt junior outside linebacker Terrell Lewis.

"We wanted to recruit a lot of linemen in this class, and to get five offensive linemen and six defensive linemen was probably a really good thing," Saban said. "We also felt like five defensive backs was a really good thing for us."

Alabama lost out Wednesday on four-star defensive end Khris Bogle of Fort Lauderdale, with the former Tide commitment flipping and signing with Florida. Bogle told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that former Alabama defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi leaving last month to become defensive line coach of the NFL's Cleveland Browns factored into his switch.

Lupoi's departure may also have played a role for outside linebacker Henry To'oto'o of Concord, California, who favored Alabama for much of his recruitment but signed Wednesday with Tennessee.

Alabama did gain an outside linebacker Wednesday in a roundabout way, with Saban telling ESPN2 that Eyabi Anoma, who entered the NCAA transfer portal Tuesday, will remain with the Tide. Anoma was the highest-rated member of Alabama's 2018 class and tallied nine tackles and two tackles for loss as a freshman.

The additions of Bogle and cornerback Kaiir Elam of North Palm Beach enabled Florida to finish ninth in the 247Sports rankings, while Auburn finished 11th and Tennessee 12th. The Southeastern Conference had 11 of the top 24 teams.

Ole Miss landed in-state running back Jerrion Ealy, a five-star recruit who decommitted from the Rebels early last month. Ealy is also a standout in baseball and called Wednesday's signing the first step, with the second step being baseball season and the third being whatever June's MLB draft provides.

"I love both sports, but baseball has my heart," Ealy told ESPN2. "When the time comes, hopefully I'll make the right decision for me and my family. Right now, it's baseball."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.