Throughout the course of college football history, we have seen historic recruiting classes. In the Recruiting Rewind series, we will visit some historic recruiting classes since 2010. First up is 2017 Alabama. The Tide took home the top spot in the 2017 recruiting rankings and had many players win multiple awards and championships and become first-round draft picks. Today by ranking, we will look at the top five players in the 2017 Alabama recruiting cycle.
1. Najee Harris
As a recruit, Najee Harris ranked as the 2nd best player in the class. The star RB chose the Tide over Michigan. Najee is regarded as one of the top Alabama RBs of all time, which is impressive considering who the Tide have produced. As a Freshman, Najee saw most of his carries in the national championship against Georgia, where he rushed for 64 yards. Najee continued to improve each year for the Tide, rushing for more yards in his next three seasons and breaking the record for career rushing yards and touchdowns in his senior season, and winning the Doak Walker Award given to the best RB in College Football. After his 2020 season, Harris declared for the draft, where the Pittsburgh Steelers selected him 24th overall. In his first two years in the NFL, he has accumulated over two thousand yards and rushed for one thousand yards each season. So far, Harris has made the Pro Bowl once and was named to the All-Rookie team.Â