UAB Signed 41 Transfers in January. The High School Pipeline Is What Comes Next.

When UAB signed 41 players from the transfer portal on Jan. 27, the reaction from parts of the fan base was predictable: Where are the high school kids?

The answer was simple. There weren’t any — and there couldn’t be.

Alex Mortensen had his interim tag removed on Dec. 5 — less than two weeks before the December signing period opened. The timing left almost no runway to recruit high school players for the 2026 class. The portal was the only way to restock a roster that needed bodies at every position, particularly on defense, where new coordinator Todd Grantham accounted for 27 of the 41 additions.

The class ranked fourth in the American Athletic Conference and eighth among non-power-conference teams. It included 15 players from power-conference programs, 16 from the Group of 5, eight from the FCS and two from junior colleges.

It was a bridge. Mortensen has been clear about what comes next.

The 5-Hour Radius

“One of our objectives is to sign more high school players going forward in the future,” Mortensen said in a recent interview with the American Athletic Conference. “I don’t want to put a hard number on it, but we certainly hope to recruit more.”

The late hiring cycle made the 2026 class an outlier, not a template.

“Just even with the way the hiring cycle worked this last time — which again, I’m very appreciative and grateful to have an opportunity to be here — but that did occur kind of on the back end of the December signing period,” Mortensen said. “So, it’s kind of hard to maybe take quite as many high school players as we wanted to in this class.”

His recruiting philosophy starts with geography.

“I do believe in the football in this area,” Mortensen said. “I grew up just south of Atlanta, and you know, you take the 5-hour radius around Birmingham. I mean, I think there’s great football here. I really do. Whether it’s in our state or the bordering states, it’s important for us to build those relationships.”

Those relationships start with coaches, not just players.

“I think a lot of that starts with the relationship with the high school coaches,” Mortensen said. “I think in some aspects that’s been deemphasized. We want to re-emphasize that.”

Camp Season Is Producing

The evidence is already showing up on campus.

UAB has three high school commits for the 2027 class — all from the footprint Mortensen described. Interior offensive lineman Kaiden McKenzie (6-4, 330) committed in April from Brookwood High School in Snellville, Ga. On June 7, two more followed: interior offensive lineman Bryce Daniels (6-4, 321) from Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Fla., and defensive back Dai’jon Hayes (6-0, 175) from Tift County High School in Tifton, Ga.

June 7 was a busy day. Jaylin and Jordin Jones, 3-star twin linebackers from Westfield High School, also visited that day. Both are 2027 prospects — Jaylin at 6-3, 215 and Jordin at 6-2, 220. The Jones twins have visits scheduled at Texas State, UTSA, New Mexico and Sacramento State, where they spent this past weekend.

The following weekend brought more traffic. Jshawn Jinks, a 6-4, 330-pound defensive tackle from Georgia Military College, took an official visit. Jinks is a December 2026 graduate who could enroll early and has offers from Troy, FIU, Georgia State and Old Dominion. Seth Kidd, a 6-3, 285-pound defensive tackle from Itawamba CC in Mississippi, also made an official visit the same weekend. Kidd holds offers from Kansas State, Troy, Southern Miss, Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech, ULM and UMass.

Two JUCO defensive tackles on official visits the same weekend is Grantham’s fingerprint.

Samuel “BAM” Weary, a 2027 linebacker from Manvel High School in Texas (6-3, 210, 4.6 GPA), also visited this past weekend.

Building Beyond 2027

The Blazers aren’t just working the next signing class. UAB has extended offers into 2028, 2029 and 2030.

The 2028 targets include Kendall Harris, an athlete from Odenville, Ala., with a 3.9 GPA, a 4.5-second laser-timed 40 and a 40-inch vertical who also holds offers from Georgia Tech and South Florida. TJ Brandon Jr. (6-6, 320) is an offensive lineman from Douglas County High School in Douglasville, Ga. Dallas Covington, a 6-3, 180-pound defensive back from East Nashville Magnet School, has 19 Division I offers including Marshall, Memphis and Liberty.

In the 2029 class, UAB has offered Bralen Coleman, a 6-3, 197-pound wide receiver from Thompson High School in Alabaster — 30 minutes south of campus. Coleman’s offer list includes Mississippi State, Miami, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Arkansas. UAB is in early on a local prospect with SEC-level interest.

The Blazers have also offered into the 2030 class, including wide receiver Camden Powers.

Development Over Roster Churn

The recruiting push is tied to a broader philosophy. Mortensen is betting on development in an era when most coaches have moved the other direction.

“I think development is something that sometimes it’s easy for a lot of coaches right now to kind of give up on because your life cycle with a player is so much shorter,” Mortensen said. “But we want to still develop players.”

That’s the tension at every G6 program right now. The portal makes it easier to fill a roster but harder to build a culture. Mortensen is choosing both — a portal class to bridge the gap and a high school pipeline to build what lasts.

“We want to build team chemistry, team goals, a group that works together,” Mortensen said.

The 41-man portal class was the answer to January. The camps, the offers and the commits are the answer to everything after.