🏈 Best freshman discussion

[Fishintide]

I have followed Alabama football closely for well over thirty years. In that time, the best true freshmen I can recall would be Cornelius Bennnett, Cam Robinson, and JK Scott(if specialists count), among others. But as of today I can honestly state that Minkah just might top the list. There have been other very good ones, but I am interested in seeing other fans' lists and where you would put Minkah Fitzpatrick today.

The best true freshman player I can recall ever watching was Herschel Walker, and he may never be topped. But given that Minkah plays one of the most difficult positions on the field, both athletically and mentally, his accomplishments to this point are truly remarkable.

 

[psychojoe]

Julio Jones was pretty special as a freshman. Dante Hightower was awfully good. I thought Minkah would be a contributor as a freshman, but I don't think anyone suspected he would contribute at the level he has. Great football instincts.

 

[rick4bama]

@Fishintide I may have to agree with you, since freshman been allow to play. @psychojoe you right in that way, but we all thought Julio and Dante was going to be good at this level. He is more of a sleeper, a very great sleeper at that. That three TD's in the last three games? UGA block punt TD, two INT for TD's.​

 

[OldPlayer]

It's impossible to compare side-by-side. Offenses and defenses are different, playing styles are different, players are bigger/faster/stronger. However, Minkah is special.

 

[Fishintide]

It's impossible to compare side-by-side. Offenses and defenses are different, playing styles are different, players are bigger/faster/stronger. However, Minkah is special.

It's not fashionable to mention O-linemen in the same discussion with skill guys, but I thought Cam was maybe our best of the five last season. Played incredibly well for a true frosh. And of course, Julio was already pretty beastly his first year as well. But Biscuit was truly a cut above in his day, having taken preparation for college ball seriously coming in. He was an impact player as a freshman, but I don't recall ANY Alabama freshman having a true game-changing impact that Minkah has had so far. He is on a trajectory to be an all-time great college freshman player. And I mean, EVER. The dude is a flat-out playah!

And I will add this too. I doubt there has ever been a punter with a better true freshman season than Scott had in 2014. I am shocked that he has fallen off so much this year.

 

[planomateo]

I've said it before, what really impresses me with Minkah is he wasn't an early enrollee, he showed up in June.

 

[Fishintide]

I've said it before, what really impresses me with Minkah is he wasn't an early enrollee, he showed up in June.

Yeah, it takes almost a football "savante" for a true freshman DB to pick up the defensive playbook. Very impressive.I'm sure NFL scouts are already drooling. As long as he's been at Bama, no first-year DB under Saban has come close to Minkah's level of contribution.

 

[Tidestalker]

Great discussion.

As noted, Cam Robinson was amazing last year. Trent Richardson had a good freshman year but with Ingram on the roster, he couldn't make dominating impact.

The thing about Minkah is... He's not even playing in the base package. Granted we are in Nickel or Dime about 75% of most games, but still that's 1/4 of the game he's not out there and yet he's still making more plays than anyone in the secondary.

I think Cooper could have been a dominant freshman from the jump, but the staff wanted him to "earn his role" early on. By the BCS title game against Notre Dame he was a man amongst boys.

I don't want to take it overboard because in some cases the ball is just flat thrown to Minkah and/or Eddie... But some guys just have a knack for "getting lucky" on those types of plays and he's always around the ball. Lester had a lot of lucky INT's in his career... But he wasn't taking every other one to the house.

It will be interesting to see if Minkah stays at Star for his entire career or gets moved out to CB next season. He might be one of the very few that Saban would consider playing CB in base and moving into star for Nickel/Dime situations, bringing in a guy like Tony Brown to play corner. If he stay's healthy his entire career he may leave the most decorated DB in this Saban era... That's saying something.