The first time I saw the name Terrence Cody, I did a triple take. I was down at Ole Miss and Cody's was the fifth nameplate listed in the Rebels' defensive tackles recruiting board. Each prospect gets a rectangular nameplate that has their height, weight, usually a 40-yard dash time and where they're from written on it. On Cody's it said: "6-5, 410." I think Ed Orgeron winced every time he glanced at that name tag.
You just don't hear about 400-pounders playing college football, and I doubted Cody would make it into I-A football, but last winter Nick Saban signed him and now there seems to be some interesting buzz coming from Tuscaloosa about him. At the very least, he has massive cult-hero appeal with a little legend already building about the guy the program officially lists at 395:
"Hope he doesn't line up on me," senior center and co-captain Antoine Caldwell told the Tuscaloosa News. "When you see a guy that big you think he's going to be a straight north-south kind of guy. It's amazing how athletic he is, how flexible.
"We joke around, but the first time I saw him was on a basketball court, dunking and doing 360s. Incredible athlete."
I don't know about 360s, but if he can even get rim weighing almost four bills that's pretty impressive. And, with apologies for this pun, Cody has the potential to turn into quite a big role player this year for Alabama. Saban inserted Cody into his goal-line defense and his offense was stoned on repeated attempts to get into the end zone. Obviously that could help shore up what has been a big problem for Bama. Last year, the Tide was last in the SEC in red-zone defense. The opposition scored on 36 of 38 possessions within the 20-yard line (89.5 percent), including 26 touchdowns (14 rushing, 12 passing).
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3533094&name=feldman_bruce
