Assessing Alabama’s 2015 class the week before signing day

Barring a major catastrophe, Alabama already has wrapped up the unanimous No. 1 ranking of the 2015 recruiting class.

The Tide hasn’t been able to deliver a fourth national championship under Nick Saban, but top classes keep arriving in Tuscaloosa like clockwork.

Unlike a typical Alabama class, though, this one is light on linemen and heavy on the edges, at least at the top. Just one of Alabama’s seven highest-rated commitments is a lineman — five-star defensive tackle Daron Payne. He’s the only one of the top seven that weighs more than 205 pounds, according to 247Sports.

The class does include four commitments from four-star guards.

The Crimson Tide is chasing a seventh five-star player along the defensive line, trying to pull an upset to nab CeCe Jefferson or Byron Cowart, but may have to “settle” for just six.

Cornerbacks Kendall Sheffield and Minkah Fitzpatrick, if they sign with Alabama as expected, will give the Crimson Tide four five-star corners in the last two years, joining Tony Brown and Marlon Humphrey.

Most of Alabama’s work right now is making sure it retains its 26 current commitments, and seven of those were early enrollees. But with scholarship availability stretched thin, the team already has shifted a lot of its recruiting focus to 2016.

ASSESSING ALABAMA’S 2015 CLASS

Current commits or enrollees: 26 (avg. star 4.0)
Remaining primary targets: DE CeCe Jefferson, DE Byron Cowart, WR Terry Godwin, WR Daylon Charlot, OT Chidi Valentine-Okeke, WR K.J. Hill
National/SEC rank: 1/1

NOTABLE COMMITS

Christopher Smith

An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.