HAVING THE HYPE
The No. 1 overall Rivals.com football prospects of the past decade:2016 — Michigan DT Rashan Gary2015 — Auburn DE Byron Cowart2014 — Alabama DE Da’Shawn Hand2013 — Ole Miss DE Robert Nkemdiche2012 — Missouri WR Dorial Green-Beckham2011 — South Carolina DE Jadeveon Clowney2010 — Florida DE Ronald Powell2009 — Tennessee RB Bryce Brown2008 — Ohio State QB Terrelle Pryor2007 — Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen
Alabama junior defensive end Da’Shawn Hand was the nation’s No. 1 recruit in 2014, but he quickly became the proverbial small fish in a big pond in Tuscaloosa.
How quickly?
“The very first day,” the 6-foot-4, 278-pounder from Woodbridge, Va., said this week in a news conference. “I was like, ‘Wow. This is college football.'”
Hand earned USA Today first-team All-America honors after the 2012 and 2013 high school seasons, and he was Rivals.com’s top overall prospect in the 2014 class. He arrived at Alabama weighing 260 pounds and joined a defensive front that contained the larger, more experienced likes of A’Shawn Robinson, Jonathan Allen, Jarran Reed and D.J. Pettway, which led to the initial adjustment of coming off the bench.