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Alabama linebacker Prince Hall hoping to work his way off suspension
By DAN WEBER
The Press-Enterprise
The optimistic take on former Moreno Valley High football phenom Prince Hall is that the junior linebacker could be in for "a breakout season" at Alabama.
At least that's how the Crimson Tide's optimistic Bleacher Report Web site sees it.
There is, of course, one hurdle right now for Hall, who was considered the top freshman defender in the Southeastern Conference two seasons ago and seemed on his way to an All-American run in his sophomore year last fall.
Hall has been on indefinite suspension from the Crimson Tide team since Feb. 26 for what Coach Nick Saban said was a "violation of team rules and policies related to his behavior."
Before he does anything, Hall first must find a way to break back in to the lineup after working his way off the suspension that has separated him from the program. He was removed from the spring roster and not allowed to practice or work out with the team, although he's now back on the Web site roster. But Hall is not being mentioned in the national preseason magazines that are out this week.
It didn't help that this was the second suspension for Hall. He had also been held out from last season's opener against Western Carolina for a violation.
While Hall's actions did not approach the severity of some of the program's off-the-field problems -- including the arrest of eight Alabama players in Saban's first 14 months -- they did come after the team had 30 missed games for suspensions, something Saban told reporters "may be an NCAA record."
An Associated Press story this spring even played off the traditional "Roll Tide" cheer with a "Parole Tide" headline.
"I'm still waiting to hear," Hall said last week from Tuscaloosa, Ala., where he'd returned for the first semester of summer school after several weeks at home. "I'm going to school and working out."
Hall didn't get into the specifics regarding his suspension. While he said he hasn't been promised anything by Saban in so many words, Hall, who has retained his football scholarship, said it's simple: "I have to keep in school, keep working out and keep my health up."
Despite his uncertain status, the NFL Draft Scout Web site has Hall listed as the No. 8 prospect at inside linebacker for the 2010 draft, even though he could leave early after this year -- if he has a good season.
That site also listed a quote from Saban about Hall's transgressions: "It's a family thing that we're not going to discuss in public. But behavioral issues are usually based on behavioral issues so ... behavior has something to do with it."
Ted Wadkins, Hall's coach during his senior year at Moreno Valley, had some words of advice for his former player when he worked out at the school on his recent visit home.
"I told him he's competing for his life," Wadkins said, as far as Hall's NFL draft prospects are concerned, with Hall being in something of a no-man's land should he want to leave early for the 2009 draft. "He knows he's got to make it back."
Hall, who is 5-foot-11, is one of Alabama's two linebackers with experience and the only one who has played two seasons. Wadkins said his understanding is that Hall would be allowed back on the team if he keeps up his grades, keeps himself in shape (he expects to work his way back from 247 pounds to a playing weight of 235) and keeps from violating team rules.
Wadkins said he thinks Hall, as the lone Californian on the Alabama team, may have simply gone to the wrong place; a place where he's something of an outsider.
"We had some serious talks about that," Wadkins said. "To be honest with him, I told Prince I didn't want to have him go to Alabama."
Hall's mother, LaQuida Hall, said she could understand that.
"When he went there, he wanted to fit in and that's gotten him into a little trouble," she said. "He just didn't make good decisions for himself. His big thing now is to finish out what he started."
But there's no second-guessing from his family about his choice of Alabama. It allowed the Halls to find long-lost relatives, and the family makes a number of trips to Tuscaloosa to support Prince, football or no football.
"We've gone down several times and met with Coach Saban," LaQuida Hall said. "I think the thing that most disappointed him was that he expected, and still expects, Prince to be a leader."
There's another reason it's time for Prince Hall to step up, his mother said. He now has a 5-month-old daughter, Malaya, in Moreno Valley, "and it's changed him a little bit."
Saban addressed Hall's situation last week, telling the Birmingham News that Hall "has got to do everything he's supposed to do, and if he does everything he's supposed to do before we get to camp, he may have the opportunity to be a part of the team."
The timing will be close, said Hall, a human environmental science major who won't finish the second semester of summer school until Aug. 6, four days after preseason workouts start.
Saban also told the Alabama media that he "will have some kind of suspension he'll be facing when the season begins."
Maybe one game, maybe two, Hall guessed.
That end-of-summer decision will make it tough for Hall to go elsewhere to play, should he not get back on the Alabama team.
"I think it's too far down the road to be thinking about that," Hall said of potential damage to his NFL prospects.
But if he can't play at Alabama, then Hall agreed that maybe he'd have to think about where he'd go.
If it comes to that, Hall said, he might consider a school in the NCAA's FCS division (formerly I-AA), where he could transfer and play immediately.
But he doesn't expect it to come to that, Hall said. He said he expects "to graduate here in four years."
On the field, his goal is to get back to his first-year form, when he started nine games, played in all 13 and was the third-leading tackler for the Tide.
Last season, with a switch from the 4-3 to a 3-4 defense featuring a pair of inside linebackers, the combination of his off-field problems with the new defense sent his productivity into a nosedive. He started just five games, played in only 11, and his tackle total dropped from 77 to 58.
"Not as good as my freshman season," he said. "It was different."
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