Kalen DeBoer is stacking commitments for the future, and his latest one came from a kid who grew up right in Alabama’s backyard.
Kingston Preyear, a four-star quarterback out of Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, announced Friday he’s headed to Tuscaloosa. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound prospect picked the Crimson Tide over Florida and Vanderbilt, according to Hayes Fawcett of Rivals and On3 Sports. Auburn and Ole Miss were also in the mix, so it was pretty clear Preyear was going to stay in the SEC either way. Alabama just won the tug-of-war.
That’s the kind of get that matters for a program still settling into life under DeBoer. The 2028 class is still a long way off from signing day, but locking in a quarterback early gives the staff something to build around.
Preyear is currently ranked as the No. 4 quarterback in the Rivals Industry Rankings and sits at No. 56 overall nationally. Rivals has him as the top QB in Alabama for his class too. Those numbers might shift over time, but it’s a strong starting point for a kid who still has three more years of high school football ahead of him.
Benjamin Russell isn’t exactly a powerhouse — it’s ranked No. 24 in Alabama and No. 578 nationally for football per the latest high school rankings. But that doesn’t seem to have held Preyear back in terms of recruiting buzz. His film, his frame, and his offer list have done the talking.
DeBoer now has five commitments for the 2028 cycle, two of them classified as Blue Chip recruits. Preyear is the highest-rated of the bunch so far. Alabama sits at No. 2 nationally in 2028 recruiting rankings and No. 1 in the SEC according to Rivals. That’s not exactly surprising for a program that’s lived near the top of those lists for a decade, but it’s a sign that the transition from Nick Saban to DeBoer hasn’t slowed things down on the trail.
The Crimson Tide still have a long way to go before this class is set in stone. Recruiting rankings for 2028 are going to change a hundred times between now and signing day. But landing a homegrown four-star QB early? That’s a win any way you slice it.
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