'The guy is an athlete': DeBoer praises three-sport star Jackson Lloyd
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama signed four offensive linemen on Day 1 of the Early Signing Period, addressing a position head coach Kalen DeBoer pointed to following the spring.
The Crimson Tide added the nation’s No. 1 interior offensive lineman, Michael Carroll, a top-50 tackle, Jackson Lloyd, and two interior linemen from Alabama, Micah DeBose and Mal Waldrep. Alabama could still address the line via the transfer portal, but the 2025 recruits who signed on Wednesday give the Tide a strong foundation to work with this offseason.
All four players committed to Alabama after it landed now-Five-Star Plus+ quarterback Keelon Russell this summer, but some of them had been on the staff’s radar longer than others.
DeBoer and the coaches who followed him from Washington to Tuscaloosa had known about an offensive tackle from Carmel, California for a while. Lloyd was one of the first players to receive an Alabama offer when DeBoer took over as the coach in mid-January, and he committed to the Crimson Tide on June 18 shortly after he officially visited the Capstone.
Six months later, DeBoer could finally publicly talk about Lloyd and showered him with praise.
“I remember seeing Jackson for the first time at a camp a few years back,” DeBoer told local reporters on Wednesday. “Just to be really blunt, I mean, you see his size. So you’re taking note. And you flip on the film, that’s one thing, you see his athleticism.”
Lloyd is rated a 5-star recruit by On3 and is considered the nation’s 33rd-best player and No. 7 offensive tackle, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. The 6-foot-7, 290-pound played three sports at Carmel – baseball, basketball and football – which stood out to DeBoer.
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“The guy is an athlete,” DeBoer said. “You got this big body, you got this athlete and then you’ve got a mindset. I don’t know if there’s ever been a time where I haven’t talked to him … where I haven’t either called him or he’s texted me and I texted back, ‘What are you doing?’ and it involves a workout that he just finished or that you’re heading to.
“You just love that about him, that he just loves the grind. He loves just sport in general and all the things that he’s done, being a part of different athletic teams, the different sports.”
Lloyd is set to enroll early at Alabama – along with the rest of the offensive line signees – and DeBoer thinks the do-it-all high school star will benefit from solely focusing on one sport.
“The coordination is there, the footwork’s there,” DeBoer said, “and now that he really just focuses on football, you can probably imagine what that’s gonna be when you get in a year-round program here just focusing on that alone.”
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