Nearly 10 months after Alabama succumbed in last season’s Iron Bowl and missed out on the College Football Playoff for the first time, Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide have never seemed more driven and unified.
Alabama experienced another exodus of early departures to the NFL in January, when the likes of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, tackle Jedrick Wills, receivers Jerry Jeudy and Henry Ruggs, and safety Xavier McKinney bypassed their remaining eligibility, but there were also plenty of key components who returned. Running back Najee Harris, receiver DeVonta Smith, tackle Alex Leatherwood and inside linebacker Dylan Moses chose to come back and redeem the program after last season’s slippage to 11-2.
Those decisions to return were followed two months later by the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“When I make a decision, I stand firm with it,” Harris said on a recent Zoom call. “I wanted to come back with my team and just grind it out through another year. We didn’t know what was going to happen.
“I feel like we’ve got a really good team, and, no matter what, I’m happy I came back.”