| FTBL Can't imagine two better All-Saban captains than Javier Arenas and Barrett Jones

K

Kevin Scarbinsky |

The Nick Saban era has produced plenty of team leaders. I nominate Javier Arenas and Barrett Jones as our AL.com All-Saban team captains.

They played together, but not, you know, together. They didn't sign with the same head coach or play on the same side of the ball, and they were as different as a three-star with no other SEC offers and an Alabama legacy who lived next to super agent Jimmy Sexton could be.

Personal differences aside, they shared one essential trait. Javier Arenas and Barrett Jones were leaders. The Nick Saban era has produced many of them, but no two Alabama football players from this era have better personified what it means to be a leader during their time in Tuscaloosa.

If the AL.com All-Saban team had captains, my choices would be Javier Arenas and Barrett Jones. The undersized cornerback/return man and the versatile plus-sized offensive lineman both have their prints on the Walk of Fame at Denny-Chimes for a reason.

Arenas may have been Mike Shula's greatest gift to Saban, and to think his other Division I scholarship offer came from - wait for it - Florida Atlantic. He did NOT invent the non-offensive touchdown but came close to perfecting it, with seven punt runbacks for a score and one pick six.

Arenas managed to bookend the foundational segment of the Saban era with explosive plays. During Saban's first season in 2007, midway through the fourth quarter, he took a punt to the house to break a tie with former Saban employer LSU.

It may have been the loudest I've ever heard Bryant-Denny Stadium, a sudden, sustained, cathartic roar alerting the college football world to what was fast approaching.

The Tigers stormed back to win that game and the BCS title, but the Crimson Tide would not be denied for long. Two years later, Arenas put a period on the Tim Tebow era and an exclamation mark on Alabama's first conference title in a decade when he picked off the Florida legend in the end zone in the 2009 SEC Championship Game.

If there was a play to be made, on defense or on special teams, as cornerback, star or return man, Arenas was often there to make it. Is there another player in Alabama history who started his career with lower expectations and finished it with more individual and team accomplishments than the consensus All-American?

AL.com put together a starting offensive lineup using the best Alabama players of the Nick Saban era.

Jones was the opposite of Arenas in early hype but his brother in honors and titles. The offensive lineman from Memphis had watched a game from LSU's sideline at age 10, when Saban coached there, and had grown up in Memphis as a neighbor of Saban's agent.

Jones was a highly regarded member of Alabama's landmark 2008 signing class. He was recruited by Saban and company as diligently as prospects who weren't predisposed to play for him at the same school where their dads had played basketball, as Rex Jones did for Wimp Sanderson.

Barrett Jones wasn't as nimble as Arenas but was just as versatile, starting at right guard, left tackle and center during his college career. He's in contention in any competition of the most decorated players in Alabama football history. His resume includes awards such as the Outland and Rimington, as well as three national titles. He's one of the permanent captains for the 2012 team.

Nick Saban arrived with a rep for defense. That side of the ball hasn't disappointed, but it's the offense that's put the program over the top to four national titles.

Near the end of his final college game and title, Jones provided one of the essential moments of the Saban era. Ball and game in hand, after a disagreement on a call with fellow perfectionist AJ McCarron, Jones reacted to McCarron's anger by shoving the quarterback in the chest.

In different ways on six different Saban teams from 2007-12, Jones and Arenas demonstrated what it means to be a player, a playmaker and a leader. Can't imagine two better captains for our All-Saban team.

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