DECISIONS, DECISIONSWhere it stands in the SEC in notable players leaving early for the NFL or having committed to come back (underclassmen have until Sunday to declare):GOINGAlabama LB Dont’a HightowerAlabama CB Dre KirkpatrickAlabama RB Trent RichardsonGeorgia TE Orson CharlesLSU DT Michael BrockersLSU CB Morris ClaiborneLSU WR Russell ShepardOle Miss OT Bobby MassieMississippi State DT Fletcher CoxSouth Carolina WR Alshon JefferySouth Carolina CB Stephon GilmoreSTAYINGAlabama OT Barrett JonesAlabama OT D.J. FlukerAlabama S Robert LesterArkansas RB Knile DavisAuburn TE Philip LutzenkirchenAuburn RB Onterio McCalebbGeorgia NT John JenkinsGeorgia LB Jarvis JonesGeorgia S Bacarri RamboGeorgia S Shawn WilliamsLSU DE Sam Montgomery
Three days after winning a second BCS championship in three years, Alabama lost three juniors to the NFL.
Tailback Trent Richardson, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick and linebacker Dont’a Hightower announced Thursday that they would forgo their final season in Tuscaloosa. Richardson scored the only touchdown in Monday night’s 21-0 smothering of LSU in the Superdome, while Kirkpatrick and Hightower helped spearhead a defense that kept the Tigers out of Crimson Tide territory until midway through the fourth quarter.
Richardson and Kirkpatrick held a news conference that included Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban.
“We are 100 percent supportive of both of these young men in terms of what their choice is,” Saban said. “They’ve been great ambassadors and great representatives of the University of Alabama as people, as students and as football players, and I know they will continue to be ambassadors for this university in everything that they do in the future.”