Why 6-foot-5 TE Michael Nnabuife flipped his commitment to Alabama

Michael Nnabuife flipped his commitment from Syracuse to Alabama football while officially visiting the Crimson Tide on Saturday.

Nnabuife is a 2027 three-star tight end out of St. Frances Academy in Maryland, and his commitment gives the Tide two 2027 tight end pledges.

Alabama’s staff was able to grab a commitment from Nnabuife while talking with him during his visit. Alabama football’s head coach Kalen DeBoer, the Tide’s offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and Alabama’s tight ends coach Richard Owens played a role in Nnabuife’s decision.

“I’d probably say just talking, sitting down with coach Owens, coach Grubb, coach DeBoer, just seeing their scheme and their vision for me,” Nnabuife told Touchdown Alabama when asked what separated the Tide. “Just to be quite frank, I haven’t been down here too much. This was my second time. I was there for the Oklahoma game-day visit. On game-day visits, it’s only so much talking and sitting down with coaches that could be done because there is a game, but I feel like this weekend was very crucial, just sitting down and seeing how they will utilize me, what they do, what they’ve done with tight ends in the past. It made me very confident.”

Alabama’s freshman and former St. Frances Academy defensive back Jireh Edwards has been in Nnabuife’s ear for a long time because he has seen Nnabuife as a perfect fit for Alabama at tight end.

“Since he’s committed, he’s been in my ear about committing as well,” Nnabuife said. “Even when I was committed to Syracuse, he was like, ‘I still feel like you’ll make a perfect fit here.” And just being his former teammate, he knows what type of guy I am, what type of mentality we bring. He’ll tell me after practice, like, how much I’ll fit in, getting an inside scoop of the coaches, basically what it’s like. So, he played a major factor.”

Nnabuife went into his official visit with the Tide wanting to know how Alabama plan to use their tight ends in the future. He got his answer during his visit while watching film with Grubb and Owens.

“It was just how versatile they can be with the tight ends, especially what they have in store for them this year,” said Nnabuife. “I was able to sit down with coach Grubb, coach Owens, just crunching all that film and then showing me all the type of routes that they run and they trust their guys with, how they like to get their playmakers the ball, what type of blocks they ask for the tight ends to make. So, just being able to sit down and watch that and watch all what they’ll put on the tight ends’ shoulders. I’m all for it. I was very impressed with that, and it stuck out to me a lot.”

At 6-foot-5 and more than 240 pounds, Nnabuife is a physical and athletic tight end. He should be a great fit for Alabama in the future with his skill set as a complete tight end.

Alabama football’s newest tight end commit Michael Nnabuife @mikennabuife checks a lot of boxes at 6-foot-5.

Nnabuife previously told @TDAlabamaMag he likes to ‘dog’ whoever lines up in front of him when he is run blocking.

Full Breakdown: https://t.co/L5Z3pYYUZv pic.twitter.com/uKfFDGDWff

— Justin Smith (@Jdsmith31Smith) June 7, 2026