Alabama football recruiting: 5 must-have 2016 recruits for the Crimson Tide
By John Buhler
The No. 10 player in the country and the No. 2 defensive end resides just to the west of Alabama in Macon, Mississippi. While 2016 blue-chip prospect Jeffery Simmons would prefer to play for either the Ole Miss Rebels or the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the annual Egg Bowl rivalry game, don’t think for a second that the Alabama Crimson Tide don’t want him to instead star on future defensive lines of theirs.
Part of what has made Alabama such a dominating SEC team in the last decade under head coach Nick Saban is that the Crimson Tide eviscerate opponents at the line of scrimmage, especially with their always talented defensive line.
Alabama routinely sends great pass rushers to the NFL and the Tide will want a guy that can replace the talent they are losing in defensive end Jonathan Allen. Signing Simmons out of Mississippi could help the Tide stay dominant in the front seven, as well as weaken two SEC West rivals in Ole Miss and Mississippi State by prying him away from the Magnolia State.
It’ll be a fierce battle in the final days leading up to National Signing Day for which SEC West school will get one of the country’s best defensive end prospects in Simmons.
While Ole Miss and Mississippi State have put together tremendously strong football programs around head coaches Hugh Freeze and Dan Mullen, neither one can say that they’ve won a National Championship as a head coach in the SEC. Alabama’s Nick Saban has won four in Tuscaloosa and one in Baton Rouge as the head coach of the LSU Tigers.
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