Jihaad Campbell was not high on Alabama football before eventually signing with the Crimson Tide.
Campbell was verbally committed to Clemson for about six months before backing off his pledge to the Tigers in December before the early signing period. The Crimson Tide were not a huge player in his recruitment while he was committed to the Tigers. The IMG Academy product went into his final evaluations of his choices without a track record of liking the Alabama football program.
The Alabama linebacker reflected on this time period while talking with Pro Football Talk on the NFL on NBC at the NFL Combine.
“I was down to Alabama and Texas A&M,” Campbell said. “I didn’t really like Alabama that much. I always just wanted to beat them. Understanding that going into my last two official visits before I signed papers, I took a visit to Alabama, and it was great, just talking to Coach Saban. At the time, I had defensive coordinator Pete Golding over there. It was awesome. Then my next visit was Texas A&M. That was awesome too. I had to make a decision within at least like two days. I woke up one day and I told my support system that I was gonna take my talents to Alabama…Once you arrived down there, it was the National Championships that was all around the building. It was the trophies, it was the rings. I mean, you name it, you can name a whole bunch of things. But more so the people were genuine.”
Campbell is now one of the top linebacker prospects in the 2025 NFL Draft after three seasons with the Tide.
GET THE BEST ALABAMA FOOTBALL INSIDER INFORMATION, MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, AND RECRUITING COVERAGE TODAY! SIGN UP HERE TO UNLOCK OUR SUBSCRIBER ONLY CONTENT!*
Justin Smith is the Director of Recruiting for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via @Jdsmith31Smith
