The Saban 250: No. 131-140, Alabama's had its Share of Unsung Heroes too

BamaCentral marks the end of the Nick Saban coaching era with the definitive rankings of his top 250 players with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Jan 7, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide tight end Michael Williams (89) catches a three yard touchdown pass for A.J. McCarron (not pictured) past Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Zeke Motta (17) during the first half of the 2013 BCS Championship Game at Sun Life Stadium.
Jan 7, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide tight end Michael Williams (89) catches a three yard touchdown pass for A.J. McCarron (not pictured) past Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Zeke Motta (17) during the first half of the 2013 BCS Championship Game at Sun Life Stadium. / Eileen Blass-USA TODAY
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By the time his senior year rolled around, University of Alabama tight end Michael Williams was getting a little frustrated. Yes, he had been part of not one, but two national championship teams, that obiovusly wasn't the problem.

It was being pigeonholed as a one-dimensional player.

Everyone knew he was a good blocker, and that was the primary reason why NFL teams were showing interest in him. But among returning players on the 2012 Crimson Tide, Williams had the second-most receptions the previous season with 16, just one behind wide receiver Kenny Bell (albeit well off Marquis Maze’s team-leading 56). It was adding to the chip on his shoulder, that already existed from being recruited out of a remote part of western Alabama.

“I see myself being a dual-threat,” said the 6-foot-6, 269-pound product of Pickens County. “I see myself being an all-around, every-down tight end, don’t have to be a guy who comes off the field on third down.”

In 2011, Williams doubled his career-best for receptions with 16 for 191 yards and two touchdowns, including the backbreaking 37-yard score off a shift out of field-goal formation against Arkansas. He was also the deep target on the play LSU safety Eric Reid took the ball away off the surprise throw from Maze.

But Brad Smelley, who wound up being drafted by the Cleveland Browns, got the most attention after becoming a go-to receiver for AJ McCarron during the stretch run. He led all players with seven catches in the BCS National Championship Game, when three of the seven players McCarron completed passes to were tight ends.

‘Toward the end of the season we realized that the tight ends needed to have a bigger role,” Williams said. “ We started taking the 5-yard plays and the 10-yard plays to the tight ends. It probably opened up a lot for A.J. on the outside too.”

The numbers more than backed that up. Through the first 10 games Alabama’s tight ends averaged 3.1 completions per game. They had eight against Auburn in the regular-season finale, and 11 in the BCS title game, a 21-0 victory against LSU.

“Once he let loose and just had fun, you saw what he could do in the national championship,” Williams said about McCarron’s 23-for-34, 234yard performance that landed him the offensive MVP award in the rematch against the Tigers.

Meanwhile, the tight end plans on being more of a third-down factor, and a bigger receiving target, especially in the red zone.

“With us having some new plays we’re going to have to have him doing some certain things,” McCarron said. “You’re always going to have to expand as a player, you’re never going to be able to do just one thing and that’s it. Mike’s done a great job of making plays for us throughout his career. He’ll continue to do a good job, I’m not worrying about him.”

Fittingly, in his final game with the Crimson Tide, the 2013 BCS National Championship Game against Notre Dame, Williams caught a 3-yard touchdown pass on Alabama's second possession, as the Crimson Tide went on to win in a rout, 42-14.

The Saban 250: 131-140

The Saban 250 ranks the players who made the biggest impact during his time with the Crimson Tide (2007-23).

131. Christion Jones, WR/RS, 2012-15

• 2013 SEC Special Teams Player of the Year
• 2013 All-SEC
• Had 85 career receptions for 1,030 yards including seven touchdowns
• Returned 66 punts for 719 yards with three touchdowns
• Returned 68 kickoffs for 1,727 yards and two touchdowns

132. Malachi Moore, S, 2020-23*

• 2020 second-team All-SEC
• Team captain 2023
• Played in 52 games over four seasons, made 144 tackles, with 12.5 tackles for a loss and 1.5 sacks, 21 passes defended and five interceptions.
• During Saban’s final season had 52 tackles, including five for loss, broke up five passes with an interception.
• Scored two touchdown, on a blocked punt and a fumble.

133. Eryk Anders, OLB, 2007-09

Long before he became a professional mixed martial artist, Anders was a starter on the 2009 national championship team at Jack linebacker, and had a key fumble-causing sack in the title game. He finished his final season with 66 tackles, including 14.5 for a loss and six sacks, and one interception. Anders had 98 career tackles, including 19 tackles for a loss and 8.5 sacks.

134. Leigh Tiffin, K, 2007-09

• 2009 All-American; second-team All-American
• 2009 All-SEC
• Won starting job as a sophomore in 2007. Made all 36 extra-point attempts and was 25 of 34 on field-goal attempts
• Against Mississippi State became only the second kicker in Alabama football history to make two 50-plus yard field goals in a game, the other being his father
• 20 of 29 on field goals as a junior
• Made 87.9 percent of field goals as a senior (30 of 35), and became Alabama’s all-time leader scorer with 350 points

135. Arie Kouandjio, G, 2012-14

• 2014 All-American
• 2014 All-SEC
• Fourth-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft
• Two-year starter, played in 40 games

136. Vinnie Sunseri, S, 2011-13

• Fifth-round pick in 2014 NFL Draft
• As freshman made 11 special-teams tackles, had 31 total
• Was credited with 54 tackles as a sophomore, including 6.0 for a loss, and made two interceptions
• Returned two interceptions for touchdowns as a junior despite playing in just six games due to a knee injury
• Made 105 career tackles, including seven for a loss, and four interceptions

137. Trey DePriest, LB, 2011-14

• 2014 All-American
• 2014 All-SEC
• Three-year starter credited with 232 career tackles, including 18 for a loss and two sacks, with one interception and two forced fumbles and recoveries

138. Michael Williams, TE, 2009-12

• Was a defensive end in high school who moved to tight end. Was like having an extra offensive lineman on the field, especially in the run game and short-yardage situations
• Made 51 career receptions for 503 yards and scored seven touchdowns
• Seventh-round selection in 2013 NFL Draft

139. DeAndrew White, WR, 2012-14

 Had 94 receptions for 1,294 yards and 12 touchdowns.  Had best statistical game against Oklahoma in 2013 with 139 yards and a touchdown on three receptions

140. Quinton Dial, DE, 2011-12

• Fifth-round pick in 2013 NFL Draft
• The junior-college transfer was credited with 46 tackles and 2.5 sacks over two seasons

Christion Jones on the cover of Sports Illustrated
Christion Jones made the cover of Sports Illustrated after scoring three touchdowns in the 2013 season opener against Virginia Tech. / Sports Illustrated

Profile: Trey DePriest

The game that may have best demonstrated Trey DePriest’s importance to the Alabama defense was the 2014 season opener against West Virginia at the Georgia Dome.

DePriest didn’t play and his absence was noticeable. That’s not anything against interior linebackers Reggie Ragland and Reuben Foster, who were both making their first career starts while also being responsible for relaying the play calls in from the sideline, getting everyone lined up correctly, and …

At times the Mountaineers couldn’t snap the ball fast enough.

“I think some of the errors that we made in the first game were first-game jitters and not having Trey DePriest out there, who is the most experienced guy, to sort of control the front seven,” Nick Saban said at the time. “We have made improvement, which is what you want your team to do as a coach, and we'll continue to do it.”

With so many new contributors, improvement was already considered the key to Alabama’s defensive progression, but the learning curve was even more pronounced during the subsequent weeks. 

While Alabama still beat West Virginia 33-23, the Mountaineers tallied 365 passing yards. 

Through October no other opponent managed more than 251.

“He's been leading everybody on the defense,” Ragland said about DePriest. “Everybody responded really great.”

His presence was crucial in the development of the linebacker corps as well. DePriest entered the fall having played in 40 games, with 26 starts for the Crimson Tide, while no one else was close in terms of experience or on-field production of 149 career tackles and 65 in 2013.

The closest was Denzel Devall, who started as the Jack linebacker (the hybrid outside linebacker/defensive end who frequently puts his hand on the ground) and was in on 30 tackles during the 2013 season. Following him were Ragland (17), Dillon Lee (16), Xzavier Dickson (13), Foster (12) and Ryan Anderson (five).

The group was joined by early-enrollee freshman Shaun Dion Hamilton, who as an interior linebacker looked lost at times in the spring yet did better than most in learning the basics of Saban’s defensive system run by coordinator Kirby Smart.

“That’s everybody who comes through here,” said DePriest, who was initially Dont’a Hightower’s understudy after arriving from Springfield, Ohio, as part of the recruiting Class of 2011. “(The defense is) just hard to learn. We learn different stuff every day, so it’s kind of rough to pick it up just like that.”

It was for DePriest during his first eye-opening spring.

“That’s exactly what it was,” said DePriest, who as a freshman played mostly on special teams. “I didn’t know anything. I was lost running around. Didn’t really know much, trying to learn as much as I could from Dont’a. That’s whom I really tried to learn from because Coach Smart can only do so much. But yeah I was lost.

“I’ve come a long way from my freshman year.”

With DePriest leading the way there was comparable improvement amongst his comrades. Ragland became that interior presence that seems to thrive in Saban’s system and was named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award (nation’s best linebacker) in late October. Foster went on to win the honor in 2016.

Outside linebackers Dickson and Anderson made major contributions, especially in pass-rushing situations, and helped the Crimson Tide avoid having to take a step back when Devall was sidelined for three games by an ankle injury.

Similarly, the defense as a whole started to come together despite having just four players who were older than DePriest: defensive linemen Brandon Ivory and Anthony Orr, and safeties Nick Perry and Jarrick Williams.

This was Perry’s first season as a regular starter at free safety, and Williams wasn’t always on the field as the fifth defensive back in the nickel package, known in Saban’s scheme as “star.” Facing so many spread no-huddle, hurry-up offenses made it difficult to regularly use a nose guard like Ivory, and Orr never started.

Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide enjoyed an increase of situational roles and deeper rotations, resulting in more players contributing as coaches continually looked for ways to counter the variety of offenses faced. Thus, the importance of having that veteran in the middle to be sort of the of quarterback of the defense was stressed, especially when facing so many no-huddle, hurry-up spread attacks.

“We’ve been practicing it since January, February, whenever we started spring ball,” DePriest said about spread schemes, which gave Alabama problems against Auburn and Oklahoma at the end of 2103. “So pretty much every day we’ve practiced against it, so that tells me it’s not really a problem.

“We were ready for it a year ago, but we just didn’t play it the way we wanted to play it.”

Perhaps that only contributed to DePriest’s decision to not leave early and enter the NFL draft, while teammates like Adrian Hubbard and Vinnie Sunseri did despite not being considered top-round selections. Regardless, the reins were handed over from Butkus winner C.J. Mosley well before spring practices began.

“I didn’t regret my decision, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” DePriest said. “It wasn’t necessarily all for football. I wanted to graduate. I’ll be the first one from my family to graduate from college. That’s something I wanted to do, and play some more college ball.”

Those family ties shouldn’t be overlooked as DePriest was known to write names of loved ones on the fingers of his gloves, and part of his ritual prior to kickoff included a quick phone call.

“I try to call my grandfather before every game, if I can get service, and get a prayer,” he said.

See also: The Saban 250: No. 141-150, Not All Careers Went as Expected

Next up: No. 121-130


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Christopher Walsh
CHRISTOPHER WALSH

Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of BamaCentral, which first published in 2018. He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004, and is the author of 26 books including Decade of Dominance, 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Nick Saban vs. College Football, and Bama Dynasty: The Crimson Tide's Road to College Football Immortality. He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.