ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. — Alabama football fans seem to have already fallen in love with the idea of Cederian Morgan .
The 2026 prospect has five stars next to his name. He is the highest rated Alabama high school wide receiver recruit since Ryan Williams , one ranked as the second-best receiver nationally and the No. 11 player overall per 247Sports' composite rankings. He is the No. 1 player in the state with an official visit to Colorado complete, other official visits scheduled, including in-state powers Auburn and Alabama , and a July 2 decision date set.
And then there's Morgan, the actual player, the actual person, the Benjamin Russell High School student who took the practice football field as the days of his junior year of high school dwindled. Morgan is humble. He's goofy. And Alexander City is his home.
"You wouldn't even know I was a five star unless you heard," Morgan said, leaning his 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame against the wall in the hallway of Benjamin Russell. "Because I'm not going to tell you."
Morgan doesn't need to tell anyone.
Once he takes the football field, he said, it's his time to get serious, to handle business and become like the wide receivers he looked up to as a kid: Julio Jones , with his size, his feet and his route-running ability; Jerry Jeudy , the "route technician;" and Randy Moss, the player Morgan didn't feel he needed to describe.
"You know about Randy Moss," Morgan said with a grin.
Morgan was Benjamin Russell's version of Moss as a junior, catching 70 passes for 1,162 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns in 2024, per MaxPreps.
Morgan is a "monster," a "freak," to quarterback Kingston Preyear, the Montgomery Catholic transfer who just met the wide receiver in February. And to new Benjamin Russell coach Kirk Johnson, the best way to describe Morgan, the wide receiver, is to use the descriptor Morgan himself wouldn't use: "a five star."
"We're all, 'Man, I wish I was faster, I wish I was bigger,'" Johnson said. "He's not one who can say all those things."
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Since the Kalen DeBoer era began at Alabama, Morgan has always been a priority for the Crimson Tide . And Morgan said he's consistently felt that love, from his introduction to wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard at Benjamin Russell last spring and the offer that came after he participated in a recruiting camp in Tuscaloosa last May, to the present, with less than a month-and-a-half before a commitment.
Morgan praised Shephard as a coach who is "going to push you to do your best and get you to reach limits that you have never reached before." But Morgan's feelings about Alabama are much simpler than just about development.
"Their tradition of winning," Morgan said. "You think of Alabama, you just think about winning. And I want to be a part of winning, so that's why they are on my list"
As his Alabama official visit nears, Alabama, Morgan said, has already shown him everything he wants to see. Through June, he plans to take his time with his official visits and "see what everyone else has to offer," before getting with his family, seeing what is best for him and making sure his "first decision is my best decision."
But none of this has affected Morgan, the Benjamin Russell wide receiver.
In Morgan, Johnson said he has a receiver who is already polished and developed, but one who didn't come to the new coaching staff with demands for targets or attention.
In Morgan, Preyear, who has offers from programs like FIU, Houston and Ole Miss , has a receiver who he can just tell "Go," who knows what exactly the quarterback wants.
"It's legendary, to come and see the wide receiver I get to throw the ball to, one of the best guys in the nation, actually, … it's like once in a lifetime," Preyear said. "You don't see that every day. You don't see that at every high school."
But, there is one thing Morgan does not want people to forget.
Yes, a commitment is coming, a "dream come true" to follow in the footsteps of receivers like Jeudy, Jones and Moss to go through college to the NFL. Yes, he is early enrolling, bewildered by the six-to-seven months he has of high school life before the next phase begins.
But ahead of a senior season where Morgan has his sights set on a state title and, potentially, a Mr. Football award — even without, admittedly, much else to prove — the wide receiver wants people to recognize he is not just a five star.
"At the end of the day," Morgan said, "I'm still a kid."
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Where Alabama football stands for 2026 5-star WR Cederian Morgan
