Alabama Football 2018: New Freshmen make it onto the Alabama Roster

Ahead of the SEC Media Days, the SEC released their annual media guide, and with it we saw the first glimpse of the Crimson Tide roster since it was last updated during spring ball. The big news is that we got to see many of the incoming freshmen— their new numbers and how their height and weight differed from the numbers we got from their high schools. But we also saw slight changes in the weight of many returning Alabama players. There weren’t any big insights into team philosophy, like last year when every tight end on the team bulked up about 10 pounds to fit new OC Brian Daboll’s scheme, but there were still a couple of big movers in their weight changes.

Interestingly, freshman linebacker Jordan Davis and sophomore VanDarius Cowan are still listed on the roster. This tells me first that the roster is at least a couple of weeks old, as Davis has since not qualified academically and went to a JUCO, while Cowan was dismissed from the team.

Secondly, this tells me that the freshmen have been officially on the roster with their numbers picked out since before Davis was found to have not qualified, and RollTide.com still hasn’t updated the roster since the spring updates. For some reason, Saban and the athletic department seems to have been more close-vested with information this offseason— we never saw any combine testing numbers like we had the past few years, and saw less stats from spring scrimmages (even if they were all made up by Saban in the first place) than usual. Just something to think about.

Anyway, we’ll start with the freshmen:

LB/EDGE Eyabi Anoma: #9 — At 245 pounds, he’s 23 pounds heavier than his listed high school weight. Considering my main worry about the explosive pass rusher was his lean frame, this is a good thing

DB Jalyn Armour-Davis: #22 — Weighing 181 pounds, he’s much more college ready than his high school weight of 165.

DL Christian Barmore: #58

OL Tommy Brown: #75

OL Emil Ekiyor: #55 — coming in at 342 pounds, Ekiyor is the biggest freshman by a long shot, and second biggest on the team, behind Deonte Brown.

RB Jerome Ford: #27— Ford is 11 pounds heavier than he was at high school, and now sits at a respectable 206.

QB Layne Hatcher: #18

DB Josh Jobe: #28 — Like Armour-Davis, Jobe was too light in high school, but is up to 191 pounds now.

LB/EDGE Cameron Latu: #46 — At 246 pounds, Latu is 10 pounds heavier than his high school weight, and is the perfect size for a JACK linebacker.

LB Jaylen Moody: #41

DT Tevita Musika: #91 — the JUCO transfer was listed at 300 pounds, but has now ballooned up to 338. You have to wonder if he didn’t take care of business during his time preparing to transfer and now has his work cut out for him to get back into that 300-315 range that Saban seems to prefer for his nose tackles.

TE Michael Parker: #80

DB Eddie Smith: #25

DB Patrick Surtain, Jr.: #2 — Not really any different than expected, but just confirming that a freshman cornerback is coming in at 6’2” 202 makes your realize just how ridiculously athletic of a specimen he is.

WR Jaylen Waddle: #17

WR Xavier Williams: #9

Also of note: Preferred walk-on QB Braxton Barker will be wearing the same #7 that his father, Jay Barker, wore during his days slinging the pigskin around Bryant-Denny.

As for the returners, there were a few notable changes:

• Junior safety Keaton Anderson has dropped another 5 pounds. The former linebacker is now under 200 pounds.
• Early enrollee Slade Bolden spent his spring at safety, but is now listed solely as a wide receiver.
• OG Deonte Brown was the biggest man on the team at 350 pounds. He’s still the biggest, but he did shed down to 344, and is only two pounds heavier than freshman Emil Ekiyor.
• Kicker Joseph Bulovas shed 12 pounds. Hopefully it helps him win a Heisman.
• DL Raekwon Davis put on 8 pounds, and is up to 316. He looks to be embracing his move to nose tackle from defensive end.
• After shedding some pounds to become a more normal tight end size a year ago, Kedrick James has added 8 back to his frame. He’s now a solid 263 pounds.
• It’s not a lot, but QB Mac Jones has put on 6 pounds, and is finally over the 200-pound mark. Not quite as horrifically skinny as he was a year ago.
• OT Alex Leatherwood has shed 10 pounds and is now a svelte 304. He struggled some with being too big in high school, and has been steadily losing weight since coming to Bama. An encouraging sign for one who’s fighting to be a starter this year.
• LB Jamey Mosley dropped 9 pounds to 239 pounds. Is he looking at a move to inside linebacker?
• Senior center Ross Pierschbacher is up 8 pounds, to 309.
• OL Kendall Randolph shed 11 pounds, and is now under 300. He may be looking to switch from guard to tackle.
• DL LaBryan Ray is probably the biggest change. He’s up 14 pounds to 294.
• Early enrollee DL Stephon Wynn shed 9 pounds and is down to 299. Considering that his lack of speed has been the biggest knock to his game, this is probably a good thing.
• Also of note was the absence of Keith Holcombe’s name and info from the 2018 roster.

And that’s it for now. RollTide.com still hasn’t updated their website, but this is the roster we were given in the SEC Media Guide. What are your thoughts?