Alabama beat out finalists Ohio State, Oregon and USC to safe a pledge from four-star exterior linebacker Justin Hill on Wednesday afternoon, touchdown the 86th-ranked prospect within the 2025 ESPN 300 as coach Kalen DeBoer assembles his inaugural class in Tuscaloosa.
Hill, a 6-foot-3 defender, introduced his choice in a ceremony at Cincinnati’s Winton Woods Excessive College. In keeping with ESPN rankings, he’s the No. 4 prospect within the state of Ohio within the 2025 class and the Tenth-ranked exterior linebacker on this cycle.
With Hill’s pledge, the Crimson Tide have added 12 commitments since June 1. DeBoer’s debut recruiting class contains 15 ESPN 300 commits and 7 top-100 prospects. Hill ranks because the second highest rated defender pledged to the Crimson Tide on this cycle behind solely linebacker Darrell Johnson (No. 34 general) in a defensive class that options commitments from exterior linebackers Dawson Merritt (No. 15 OLB) and Jaedon Harmon (No. 19), cornerback Chuck McDonald III (No. 14 CB), inside linebacker Abduall Sanders Jr. (No. 2 ILB) and defensive sort out Antonio Coleman (No. 16 DT).
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Alabama initially supplied Hill underneath Nick Saban in June 2023 after Hill tallied 42 tackles and 5.5 sacks in his sophomore season at Winton Woods. His sack complete ballooned to 13 to go together with 36 complete tackles in his junior marketing campaign final fall forward of a spring recruitment slate that included unofficial journeys to Miami and Alabama earlier than official visits to Ohio State, USC, Alabama and Oregon.
With a protracted wingspan and monitor pace, Hill performs a number of positions throughout the Winton Woods protection. His junior season sack complete displays a eager pass-rush potential, and the rangy defender appears to be like comfy at each the inside and outside linebacker spots. At Alabama, Hill will present defensive coordinator Kane Wommack with a participant who’s able to filling a number of roles as soon as he arrives on campus in 2025.
The Crimson Tide misplaced a pair of 2025 commitments within the hours after Hill’s pledge Wednesday afternoon. The primary decommitment got here from athlete Zymear Smith, the 138th-ranked prospect within the ESPN 300. The No. 10 athlete within the 2025 class, Smith had been dedicated to Alabama since early March and was the Tenth-ranked prospect within the Crimson Tide’s incoming class previous to pulling his pledge.
In-state inside linebacker Myles Johnson, who dedicated to this system underneath Saban in October 2023, adopted, pulling his dedication shortly after Smith’s announcement.