Coach’s Take: “The sky is the limit” for new Alabama OL commit

Carrollton High School in Georgia is home to multiple Alabama targets. On Sunday, Bama earned a commitment from one of those prospects: Zykie Helton.

Helton is an offensive lineman in the Class of 2026, but impressed the staff with his camp performance in Tuscaloosa last month. He went on to receive an offer that day (June 17), and committed to Alabama over his dream school — Georgia — a few weeks later.

BamaOnLine spoke with his position coach, Reggie Perkins, about Helton’s top attributes on the gridiron.

“He’s a big, physical player,” Perkins told BOL. “He works hard. Really good feet. He’s played on both sides of the ball, both offense and defense… he’s got the mentality you want to play the position. He knows he needs to dominate people, and he does a good job with that.”

This offseason, Helton has registered a 315-pound power clean, a 320-pound bench press, and a 205-pound hang clean and press. The 6-foot-2, 305-pounder has also squatted 550 pounds.

“He’s strong. As a rising tenth grader, he’s one of the top two strongest people on the team,” Perkins said. “Once he gets his hands on you, it’s tough to get away from him. He does a good job with his punch and his feet. The more and more he comes to understand everything that is going on, the sky is the limit for him.”

At Carrollton, Helton snaps the ball to highly coveted Class of 2026 quarterback Julian Lewis. Projecting him moving forward, Perkins envisions Helton being capable of playing multiple positions along the offensive line.

“I think he can play any of them,” Perkins said. “Right now, he’s the center for us. I think he can play guard or even tackle. He’s 6-foot-3, so he’s not the 6-6, 6-7 that a lot of guys like at tackle. But his feet are good enough and he understands it well enough to where he can play all of them.”

Click HERE to watch all clips from Helton’s freshman season!

With his mental approach and versatility, Perkins believes that Helton will make his presence felt at the next level.

“Wherever he goes, I think he’s going to be able to have an impact,” said Perkins, who spoke with BOL prior to Helton’s public commitment. “Once he figures it out, he’s going to be big and thick enough… mentality-wise, I think he’ll be able to play wherever he decides. He’s not out there to just fill a position; once he gets on you, he’s trying to finish the block. I think he’ll make a big impact anywhere. He can do multiple things.”

Perkins also talked about who Helton is when he’s not competing in the trenches.

“He’s a big kid. He likes to laugh and joke and also play around,” Perkins said. “That’s him. He likes to have a good time.”

Alabama fans, also be sure to join the discussion about the Tide’s first 2026 commit on the The BOL Round Table! There’s always a lot of great team, recruiting, and off-topic conversations going on. So, we look forward to talking with you all there.

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