Alabama’s 2021 class is off and running.

Four-star cornerback Latrell McCutchin became the first rising junior to commit to the Crimson Tide on Monday.

“It’s just different up there,” McCutchin told BamaOnLine of why he chose UA. “I’ve been to many campuses and it’s nothing like anything that I’ve seen. It’s just the environment and the energy from the coaches and things like that, the love from the city, it’s just amazing.”

The Austin (Texas) LBJ product returned home on Sunday from a weekend visit to Tuscaloosa, his second trip to campus this year. He informed the staff he wanted to commit before leaving.

“The whole coaching staff was excited, man, but like Coach (Nick) Saban, he’s like a really straightforward guy, he told me I’ve got to keep working, don’t change who I am or anything like that. So like, that’s one of the things I appreciated about everybody, they always keep it real. It just made me feel at home because I’ve never had anything handed to me. They’re not going to lie to you and feed you lies like telling you you’re going to start your freshman year or anything like that.”

Another big reason why McCutchin chose Bama is because of his primary recruiter Jeff Banks.

“Coach Banks is a cool dude,” he said. “He just recruits different. He’s always going to show you love. He’s never going to lie to you. If he tells you he’s gonna come see you, he’s gonna come see you. There’s a lot of coaches that will tell you they’re going to do something and then they don’t do it and I don’t really respect that too much.”

He wasn’t his area recruiter, but McCutchin is also a big fan of defensive backs coach Karl Scott.

“Coach Scott is the GOAT,” he said. “That guy coaches really different from other coaches. I just appreciate how he keeps things real with us.”

LBJ High School is less than 10 miles away from the University of Texas. The Longhorns offered McCutchin, but not until after Alabama did.

“I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t really hard,” McCutchin said of choosing Alabama over Texas, among others. “They like to show interest in you after you blow up and I feel like if I’m in your city you should automatically just want me just because I’m in your back yard, like no hesitation. But with them, they got a really slow recruiting process and I kind of respect it, but I just don’t think it’s for me.”

Asked who came in second place, McCutchin says either Oklahoma or Oklahoma State. But, for the four-star cornerback, it’s the Southeastern Conference that’s calling his name.

“It’s different,” he said of SEC football. “The SEC is really different from any conference I visited. It just feels like home. I can’t really imagine myself being anywhere else.”

McCutchin plans to take on a leadership role in the 2021 class now that he’s first on board.

“I’m just going to approach it like I approach everything else — with a confident attitude,” he said. “I’m going to try to lead my class and do things like that.”

At just over 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, McCutchin is rated the No. 7 cornerback and the No. 121 overall player, per 247Sports.

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