Another year has come and gone, and, unfortunately, the original National Signing Day isn’t even a blip on a radar anymore – it’s just a barren wasteland with the hint that a tumbleweed might have blown though in the past.
At this point, the recruiting classes are usually pretty well finished up by the summer before the season, and the final touches are done in December. Then there’s the Transfer Portal bonanza in December-January, and a handful of what used to be walk-on type players will commit in January. There may be a few stragglers in the Portal or late bottom-of-depth-chart additions, but, for the most part, Alabama’s roster for 2026 is now locked up (assuming that the NCAA sticks to not having a spring transfer portal window).
If you’re new to Roll Bama Roll, I’ve been running this Meet the New Guys series ever since 2015, starting post-National Signing Day and breaking down all the info on the new players. Things *gestures around everywhere* have changed a lot since then, but we’ll stick to the same format as in the past, though I may break this into more articles this year, as the ever-growing roster churn from the Portal make for a lot of players to go through.
Today, we start with the center of the team – the quarterbacks. Ty Simpson has moved on to the NFL, and while Alabama will most likely ride with one of the returning players in Keelon Russell or Austin Mack, it is, technically, a wide open job, and the Tide signed two highly-rated freshman who could always challenge for a role. Jalen Hurts became a starter in 2016 in this exact same scenario.
For a housekeeping item: I always use the 247Sports Composite rankings when talking about the different prospect rankings. But, if On3/Rivals or ESPN have anything that differs too significantly, I’ll make a note. It’s sometimes worth considering why certain services may have a big difference of opinion.
Finally, RIP to SPARQ. The real ones know.
Jett Thomalla
- Position: QB
- Stars: 4
- Hometown: Omaha, NE
- National Rank: 47
- Position Rank: 6
- Height: 6’3.5”
- Weight: 220
Thomalla was originally an Iowa State commit that Alabama flipped last summer, and his rise up the rankings since then has been impressive. He’s won the Nebraska Player of the Year award in back to back seasons, completing 72.6% of his passes for an absurd 58 touchdowns and 5 interceptions last year on his way to a state championship.
Rivals actually rated him #24 overall and a 5 star prospect in their final ranking update, so the dude has definitely made some waves this last year.
Playstyle
Thomalla’s most impressive trait is his ability to absolutely launch a ball 50 yards downfield and hit a receiver on the run despite the ball looking as light as feather. He doesn’t laser his throw – they’re usually soft and pliable looking, and therefore easy to catch. And yet he still has the effortless arm strength to make those throws deep downfield or over the top of zone defenders on deep corners.
It sounds weird, but it reminds me of watching JK Scott punt the ball. It looked so effortless, and yet the ball just hung in the air and kept going and going.
Thomalla also shows an impressive ability to hang in the pocket and work his eyes across the field and hit a backside dig or work to a comeback. And when he is pressured, he can shrug off a tackler and pick up some yards on the ground.
What we really haven’t seen from him is much of a short, quick passing game. It’s a skillset that should be easy, but many QBs struggle with the timing, and Thomalla just didn’t really do it much in high school. The other big thing for him is that he faced very little pressure in high school. He essentially had all the time in the world to scan and survey downfield. How any QB handles pressure and blitzes at a college level is what often makes or breaks them more than any throwing capabilities, and at this point, we don’t know what Thomalla will be like with a sped up clock.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
If Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb are trying to recreate the downfield passing game that they had with Michael Penix at Washington, then Thomalla is the guy for it. He’s going to get vertical, and he loves attacking the sidelines while giving his receivers a shot to win one on one back-shoulder balls.
I think Thomalla will easily be the #3 QB this spring, and I think he’ll even get a little lip service over the summer as someone “pushing for the starting job.” He’ll ultimately still be behind the two older players, but I don’t think it’s be a long ways behind them. Give him a season or two to get used to the speed, and if he doesn’t transfer, he’ll have his time in the sun.
Tayden Kaawa
- Position: QB
- Stars: 3
- Hometown: Orem, UT
- National Rank: 659
- Position Rank: 38
- Height: 6’5”
- Weight: 235
Again, Rivals is a little higher on Kaawa than 247 and ESPN, listing him as a 4-star prospect. He’s a BIG guy, too, at 6’5” 235. Kaawa was originally from Moanalua, Hawaii before moving to Utah a couple of years ago. He finished up his senior season with a state championship in Utah’s 5A circuit, throwing for 2,500 yards with 34 touchdowns, plus another 250 rushing yards. Kaawa was originally a big baseball recruit with a number of college offers before decided to stick to football.
Playstyle
Kaawa is an interesting player, and definitely one with some serious upside. He’s more of a pure spread shotgun player who runs a lot of RPO looks and read option runs and excels at attacking the middle of the field with things like curls and slants. In a lot of ways, his offense is much more reminiscent of the spread offenses we saw in the late 2010s.
And as such, I actually think he, stylistically and mechanically, plays a lot like a much-less-hyped Trevor Lawrence. He’s huge, of course, and he has this slightly exaggerated follow-through as he releases the ball. It looks like he’s going to beam it on every throw, but he’s actually quite adept at tossing lobs over defenders. Even more like Lawrence is his pocket movement and rushing. It looks almost awkward, and yet it’s very much not so. He’s deceptively fast – a guy that looks like he’s effortlessly jogging, but is actually blowing past tacklers, and he has that same Sunshine-like sideways-then-go move in the backfield that turns into chunk scramble gains.
To this point, the main things that will be holding him back are ball accuracy and a transition to a more pro passing scheme. He only completed about 60% of his passes last year, and a lot of his passes that he makes creatively on the run wind up with his receivers on the ground to hold the catch.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
His size, athleticism, arm, rushing ability, and pocket creativity give him a unique skillset and a really high upside if he can put things together. However, he’d fit much more naturally in a Lane Kiffin or Chip Kelly offense than he will Ryan Grubb’s pro-spread-air raid hybrid scheme. That will likely have him the clear #4 on the depth chart this offseason, and he’ll likely remain second fiddle to Jett Thomalla as long as both are on the roster.
Still, the upside is something that’s extremely intriguing to keep on the roster, and he brings a different skillset than any of the other QBs on the team.
