10 highest-rated Alabama football recruits ever and how they lived up to the hype (or didn’t)

No. 6 highest-rated Alabama football recruit: DE Eyabi Anoma (2018)

We’re living in the era of the transfer portal, so there was bound to be at least one major Alabama recruit who ended up playing somewhere else. Eyabi Anoma, who was the sixth-best recruit in Crimson Tide history, is now wearing Michigan blue and sporting a new name: Eyabi Okie.

Okie was the No. 4 prospect in the class of 2018, anchoring the No. 5 class in the country. He played in six games as a true freshman, logging two tackles for loss and earning SEC All-Freshman honors. But for all his promise on the field, off-the-field issues got in the way.

After one year, Okie was dismissed from Alabama. He landed at Houston where he had to sit out the 2020 season. But the same issues followed. The Cougars dismissed him for a combination of “tardiness, skipping class, clashing with teammates, insubordination, etc,” Matt Zenitz of On3 reported.

Okie landed on his feet in FCS with UT Martin before jumping at the opportunity to join the Wolverines in 2022. Three years removed from his last FBS appearance, the defensive end had 6.5 tackles and 4.5 sacks on the season.

Then he transferred again! Okie followed his former high school coach and Michigan assistant Biff Poggi to Charlotte to finish out his college eligibility.