30 best Alabama football players to play for Nick Saban

Best Alabama football players under Nick Saban: 29. Dre Kirkpatrick

Dre Kirkpatrick is different from a lot of the players on this list. Alabama is home to him. Saban recruited Kirkpatrick during the 2008-09 school year out of the city of Gadsden. The city in the northwestern part of the state isn’t exactly a tourist attraction, but Saban wasn’t going to miss on a five-star recruit out of his state. Saban went hard for Kirkpatrick, who was rated as one of the best players in the country at any position.

Kirkpatrick used his physicality to gain an advantage on opposing wide receivers. His stats don’t jump off the page. That’s because he had that “Darrelle Revis” factor. Opposing teams just refused to throw the ball his way. That’s why he only had three interceptions in his career. He would shut down an entire side of the field. The quarterback didn’t even look his way.

He would hit hard, and he even forced two fumbles and returned one for a touchdown in his final year. It didn’t matter what Alabama needed, he was there. Kirkpatrick could get into the backfield as fast as a linebacker to tackled a running back. His instincts always seemed to be right on the field.

His skill set was insane. He could keep up with the fastest receivers in the country, but he could also use his size to knock someone out of position. He deflected nine passes against him in his junior year, and he could have had more interceptions. That was probably his fatal flaw, as he dropped quite a few picks. He was still a superstar on the Alabama defense.