Bear Fretwell

Physical Profile

This is an elite-frame tackle prospect. Verified measurables: 6-foot-7, 300-305 pounds, 34-inch arms, 81.5-inch wingspan, 10.25-inch hands, a 9-foot-2 broad jump and a reported 4.77 forty. Those arm and wingspan numbers clear the typical NFL tackle threshold, and the broad jump plus forty are legitimately rare for a 300-pounder at any level of high school football. He is also unusually young for his class and was a late developer: homeschooled before Southeast Bulloch, roughly 6-foot-3 as a freshman, and by his head coach's account nearly washed out of the weight room his first week. He did not start on varsity until his sophomore year, and started on defense before he started on the offensive line. Coach Jared Zito's description that he 'doesn't look 6-foot-7 and 300 pounds in a t-shirt and shorts' is telling: the weight is proportional and he carries it like an athlete, not a mass player. The ACL is the one physical caveat. Reports through spring 2026 had him ahead of schedule (originally targeted for October, doctors described the recovery as 'going way faster than normal'), but a 300-pound tackle returning from ACL reconstruction typically needs a full year before lateral change of direction and anchor strength return to pre-injury levels.

Play Style

On film Fretwell is the player who stands out physically the moment the tape starts. His coach's phrase, 'it's like, who is the freak?', captures the visual: a tackle a half-foot taller than everyone around him who still moves fluidly. He wins with reach and first contact, gets to the second level easily on zone and climb concepts, and shows the kind of twitch that lets him recover when initially beaten. His high school offense used him as a tackle after a defensive start, and the athleticism reads more naturally in space (pulls, reach blocks, screens) than in the phone booth. The knock, and the reason he was a three-star rather than a four-star, is a combination of thin competition level, raw technique, and a relatively short varsity resume rather than any limitation in traits. He is a projection player: the physical toolbox is a four-star's, the reps are not yet.

Strengths

• Length and reach that project to left or right tackle at the SEC level: 34-inch arms and an 81.5-inch wingspan let him land first in pass protection and keep edge rushers off his frame even when his feet are late, which is the trait Alabama's staff cited when they identified him.
• Rare movement skill for the size: a 9-foot-2 broad jump and 4.77 forty at 300 pounds show explosive lower-body power and the ability to reach second-level linebackers and climb on combination blocks. His high school coach's summary, 'he can bend and he can run, he has really good twitch,' matches the testing data.
• Developmental runway: he is young for the 2026 class (his coach said he 'really should have one more year'), started only two varsity seasons, and went from a 6-foot-3 freshman to a 6-foot-7, 300-pound P5 tackle in three years. The growth curve is still steep, which is exactly what a program with Alabama's development infrastructure is buying.
• Versatility and football IQ: he played defense before offense at Southeast Bulloch, was described as 'a smart kid' who can 'play inside or outside,' and gives the staff a fallback at guard if his tackle footwork does not fully develop. Reports credited him as 'physical' and praised his mentality trending toward 'imposing play in and play out.'

Areas to Improve

• ACL recovery and re-establishing anchor/lateral agility: the late-December 2025 tear in bowl-game practice cost him spring practice and his first college offseason of full lifting. Regaining trust in the knee for kick-slides and re-anchoring against bull rushes is the first developmental priority; everything else waits on it.
• Technical refinement and pad level: at 6-foot-7 with limited varsity reps (two seasons, one of which started on defense), he was winning in Georgia AAA on length and athleticism rather than technique. He will need to lower his pad level, tighten hand placement and develop consistent independent hand usage against SEC edge rushers who will attack his height.
• Functional strength and play strength through contact: his frame is proportional but the coach's own account describes him as a late arrival to the weight room. Adding SEC-caliber core and lower-body strength while rehabbing the knee is a two-year project, and his earliest reasonable competitive window is 2027.
• Coaching-transition adjustment: the OL coach who recruited him, Chris Kapilovic, was fired, and he is now developing under Adrian Klemm. He stayed committed and publicly praised Klemm, but he is learning a new coach's system while injured, which compounds the learning curve.

College Projection

Fretwell arrived at Alabama in May 2026 as a summer enrollee and is expected to redshirt the 2026 season while completing ACL rehab; do not expect game reps this fall even if he is cleared in October. The realistic timeline is 2027 as a developmental backup tackle competing for a two-deep spot, with a starting window in 2028 or 2029 as a redshirt sophomore or junior. Alabama's offensive line room is deep, and he is behind higher-rated 2026 classmates Samuelu Utu and Chris Booker on paper, but his length and athletic profile are the type Klemm has said he recruits. If his technique catches up to his tools, he has starting SEC tackle potential by year three or four; if not, his frame gives him a fallback at guard and a long career as a rotational lineman.

Best Fit

Fretwell is best suited to a wide-zone or outside-zone run scheme with a heavy dose of pin-and-pull and screen action that turns his 4.77 speed and second-level climbing into an asset, paired with a drop-back passing game that rewards his length at tackle. He landed in the right kind of program: Alabama's strength-and-conditioning and sports medicine infrastructure was explicitly the reason he stayed committed through the coaching change, and a patient, development-first staff is what a late-blooming, ACL-recovering tackle needs. The worst fit would have been a program that needed him to play early, or a power-gap scheme that asks him to win with mass and leverage before his technique and lower-body strength mature.