Alabama Football: Ranking Crimson Tide’s last 10 recruiting classes

8. 2015

Best Player: Minkah Fitzpatrick
Best Value: Ronnie Harrison

This is where the value of each class really climbs. Every other school would beg to have a class as talented as this one. At Alabama, it’s just another day on the job.

Minkah Fitzpatrick is a top defensive back. He started at corner before moving to safety. He’s a chess piece. You can put him just about anywhere in the defensive backfield and he’s going to ball. You also have Calvin Ridley in this class, a top-five receiver in the Saban era with the Tide. Da’Ron Payne was also a 2015 recruit. He’s a top defensive tackle in Alabama history. There’s all types of talent at all types of positions.

If you’re looking for a senior leader, look at Damien Harris. Harris had two straight 1,000-yard seasons as a running back, and he still returned in his final season to lead the Tide on and off the field. You also have safety help with Deionte Thompson and Ronnie Harrison, two players that helped button down the defensive backfield along with Minkah.

My main critique in this class is that two of the top talents never panned out with the Tide. This is practically unavoidable, but they were players that a lot of people expected to be the future of this team. The biggest name is obviously Blake Barnett. He was supposed to take over after Jake Coker graduated, but he lost his job to Jalen Hurts. This is practically unavoidable at the quarterback position because you only have one guy that plays the majority of the snaps. Barnett transferred and bounced around other college teams.

Another top-level talent from the class is Kendall Sheffield. Sheffield only stayed at Alabama for one season before transferring to Ohio State. He has been a great player with them, and he was recently drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the fifth round.

All in all, this class had a few gems, but there were also a couple of busts. Both of those mellow out the class and keep it around the middle of the pack.