With the start of practice for the ReliaQuest Bowl came a group of new faces for Alabama football. Five members of the Crimson Tide’s 2025 recruiting class who are enrolling early joined the team for practices in Tampa.

The group includes safety Ivan Taylor, linebacker Darrell “Duke” Johnson, linebacker Luke Metz, tight end Marshall Pritchett and edge rusher Justin Hill. They won’t be able to play in Tuesday’s game against Michigan, but are full participants in practice.

With four of the five on his side of the ball, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said he was excited to get the young players involved.

“We go right in and they’re taking snaps day one,” Wommack said. “And then they’re going with the scout team and they’re taking snaps as well. So, really excited about those guys. It’ll be great when we can get them in more in spring ball and all that stuff, but I would say, from a defensive perspective, it’s a really athletic class. Guys that look good in space, move well and run.”

Wommack said the players weren’t coming in completely cold. Alabama coaches installed a bit of the defense with them during the season, so they would at least know a little upon arrival.

Even so, it’s a big jump from high school to the Crimson Tide.

“All of them are wide-eyed,” Wommack said. “That’s part of it, right? I don’t care where you go. There’s some guys that are more ready for college than others, just based off the scheme they ran in high school, maybe the level of competition that they played. But there’s not one guy that comes in with Jihaad Campbell or Domani Jackson or Tim Keenan and thinks ‘Oh, I know what football’s going to look like’

“They’re all taking steps and learning. And to me, what’s really great is having that eye-opening experience now in bowl preparation, so that wey they can take advantage of the reps at spring ball. Usually half of spring ball is spent with guys being wide-eyed because they don’t know what a practice looks like. They don’t know what the structure looks like.”

Alabama faces Michigan at 11 a.m. CT Tuesday at Raymond James Stadium. The game will be aired on ESPN.