30 best Alabama football players to play for Nick Saban
By Nick Villano
Best Alabama football players under Nick Saban: 11. Minkah Fitzpatrick
Minkah Fitzpatrick was so good for so long with Alabama. There aren’t a lot of cornerbacks on this list despite how great they were in Saban’s time, but Minkah Fitzpatrick stands out. He was a two-time All-American, being a unanimous All-American in his junior year. He also won the Chuck Bednarik Award and Jim Thorpe Award in 2017. He was just the third person in NCAA history to win both awards in the same season. This kid was beyond ridiculous in the secondary that season.
He’s the all-time leader in pick-sixes for Alabama, taking four interceptions to the house in his Crimson Tide career. By the time he got to his junior year, opposing quarterbacks didn’t even look his way. That wide receiver was no longer relevant. Fitzpatrick would make an offense pay for testing him at an extremely high clip.
In his sophomore season, he had two of the biggest interceptions of the season. He picked off a pass against Florida in the SEC Championship and brought it back 44 yards for a touchdown. Then, against Washington in the national semi-finals, he intercepted a pass that sealed the game for the Crimson Tide.
Fitzpatrick won his second national title when the Crimson Tide beat the Georgia Bulldogs. It just adds to a legacy of greatness that he left behind in Tuscaloosa.