I am really missing football. Specifically Alabama football. And I am also in a state of perpetual sadness about Alabama football. Now that Nick Saban won’t be coaching the team anymore I have found myself going down rabbit holes from the best of times while he was around. That made me think about the players I loved to watch play the most. So I decided to write it down. So here are my favorite Alabama players I’ve seen play.

Note: I decided to make this list 5 players. If I didn’t I would have been writing forever and it would have been entirely too long to read. So I left out guys like AJ McCarron, Reuben Foster, Amari Cooper, Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson, CJ Mosely, Reggie Ragland, Vinnie Sunseri, Terrance Cody, Barrett Jones, DeVonta Smith, Tua, Rolando McClain…just to name a few. Maybe one day I’ll do a list of like 100 players. But until then shout all those guys.

5. Javier Arenas

Maybe the best punt returner I’ve ever watched, certainly the best in college football. He was awesome. Javier Arenas was one of those guys that there was a legitimate chance he could go the distance on every single punt. He was around for the final year of the Mike Shula days and for the first National Championship under Nick Saban. He set the SEC record for most punt return touchdowns in a career with 7 and finished his career with 1,752 punt return yards. Arenas also had 6 interceptions and returned one for a touchdown. 5 of those picks came in the 2009 championship season when he was also named an All-American, the SEC special teams player of the year, and an All-SEC first teamer. So much fun to watch.

4. Dont’a Hightower

He started as a true freshman, and it was clear from the first the start he was going to be great. Then his season got cut short in 2009 due to a knee injury, so he missed the National Championship game. No matter, he was then the captain of the defense in 2011. And that was maybe the greatest defense of all time and led the way to another National Championship. That year has a special place in my heart. That team lost one game, to LSU, where the defense allowed 9 points. Then they got another chance in the championship game and not only shut them out but dominated them. Dont’a was 2nd team All SEC in 2010 and then 1st team plus All American in 2011. He had 234 total tackles in his career, and that was with only 5 in the injury season. Incredible player, incredible leader.

Note: I forgot how big Dont’a Hightower was in college. Just a massive human being.

3. Jalen Hurts

I think any Alabama fan that made a list like this would include Jalen Hurts. The way he handled himself after losing a National Championship, leading the team back to the National Championship the next season only to get benched in the second half, and then losing the job to Tua the next season was incredible. Then the script flips and he comes in for an injured Tua to win the SEC Championship. Unreal. You can’t write it much better than that. He started as a true freshman at Alabama, the first quarterback to do that since 1984. He lost 2 games as a starting quarterback. 2 games. He set all sorts of records, was an incredible player, all of that stuff. But he was a true leader and maybe the most humble person ever. And in the end it worked out for him. A story everybody can learn from.

This moment after the SEC Championship game with Jalen and Nick Saban really sums it up perfectly. It makes me choke up every time I see it just like Nick Saban did in the moment. Side note, I’ve always loved how Saban gets choked up for a split second and then gets right back to being a coach again. Love that man.

2. Julio Jones

Coming in at #2 for my favorite Alabama players I’ve seen play is Julio Jones. And I could have easily put him at #1 on this list. Honestly I would consider him and the next guy to be 1A, 1B. In my mind Julio was the player that really started the Saban era at Alabama. When I was in the 4th grade my teacher was as big an Alabama fan as me. On the day Julio was making his decision on where he was going to college, she let us eat our lunch in the classroom so we could watch the announcement live. That’s how big of a deal Julio Jones was to us. And that was the first time I realized that Saban was about to start something great, although I could never have imagined how great.

Julio played 3 seasons at Alabama, was the SEC freshman of the year, twice a All-SEC 2nd teamer, and 1st team All-SEC in 2010. He didn’t have the biggest numbers ever. 2,653 receiving yards and 17 total touchdowns. But that was also in a run heavy system with average quarterbacks. No disrespect to those guys I love them too. Nut Julio Jones was the start of something huge at Alabama and I enjoyed every second of it. And that screen pass touchdown against LSU is one of my favorite plays ever.

1. Derrick Henry

My favorite player I can remember watching. Just an absolute freak of a human. PEOPLE THAT BIG SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO MOVE THAT FAST. His time at Alabama was during a time of incredible running backs. So his freshman year was limited, his sophmore year you could see he was something special, then his junior year was unreal. He won basically all the awards, including the Heisman, rushed for 2,219 yards and scored 28 touchdowns. Henry averaged 5.6 yards per carry on 395 attempts. Insane. He scored in every single game during the 2015 season and rushed for over 100 yards in 10 of the 15 games. 4 of those games were over 200 yards! He ran for 271 yards against Auburn!! 271!!!! In back to back games, Auburn and then the SEC Championship against Florida, he carried the ball 46 times and then 44 times. Are you kidding me?!?!

In 9 of the 15 games Henry scored multiple touchdowns. 4 of those were 3 score games. The last of which was in the National Championship to beat Clemson including 158 yards on 36 carries. I can’t get over how insane that season was. That is why Derrick Henry is at the top of my list. He was just so much fun to watch. And he also had one of my favorite, kind of throw away, memories as an Alabama fan. He had not yet scored in the Auburn game and it looked like his scoring streak was over. It was a 4th down with 30 seconds left from the 25 yard line. Alabama was just running a play to kill the clock. And then Henry broke through a hole and scored, keeping the streak going. That memory has always just stuck out to me.

Who Is On Your List?

So there it is. My favorite Alabama players that I’ve seen play. As I was writing this and finding all the stats I realized I will have to make a bigger list some day. There are just so many players that I loved watching. Jake Coker, Landon Collins, Jonathon Allen, TJ Yeldon, Trent Richardson, Eddie Lacy, I could do this all day. I’d also love to hear who you would have on your list, because I obviously love remembering these guys. Let me know here or on Twitter/X. I would certainly appreciate a follow over there. And if you want some more Alabama thought exercises, go give your thoughts on my post about what Alabama should name for Nick Saban. You can also check back tomorrow for a preview of Alabama Basketball’s huge game at Auburn. Thanks for reading and Roll Tide!