Alabama's Permanent Captains Perfectly Define 2014 Season
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Before the A-Day spring game—some time in late April 2015—four Alabama players will return to campus to literally leave their mark on campus.
Blake Sims, Landon Collins, Amari Cooper and Jalston Fowler were named permanent captains for the 2014 Alabama football team by a player vote and will get a hand and footprint made in cement in front of Denny Chimes—as is tradition for each year's permanent captains.
No matter what happens in the College Football Playoff, those four will be remembered as the leaders of this year’s team that already has defied so many expectations.
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In a way, the quartet is a perfect representation of this year’s team and everything it's been through.
Collins and Cooper are two uber-talented, consensus All-Americans—and two three-and-outs about to get a big payday at the next level. While Sims and Fowler are two fifth-year seniors, they are fan favorites who stuck it out and are beloved by their teammates.
It’s the perfect mix of players for a team that has the perfect mix of personalities to make this playoff run possible.
“All four of those guys have had great careers at Alabama,” junior center Ryan Kelly, a candidate for the honor next season, said. “Those guys are always there when we needed them the most. They’re guys that we can count on. I don’t think there’s any greater award than to be a team captain. I’m proud of those guys.”
Captaincy honors are generally reserved for seniors or players who have graduated, so Cooper and Collins are interesting choices in that regard. Still, it’s hard to pretend like either will opt to play for free for another season when their talents will be in such high demand in the NFL next year.
Bleacher Report’s draft expert, Matt Miller, has Cooper and Collins as top-10 picks in his latest mock draft, the only Alabama players in the first-round mock.
Even Cooper himself said, “I have two more years here” during 2013's spring practice when answering a question about complacency after a big freshman year.
But Cooper and Collins are both the stars of the show on both sides of the ball—incredibly gifted playmakers who came through in the clutch.
Collins’ interception against Arkansas is widely considered the play of the year among the team, the play that sparked Alabama’s run through the last half of the season.
Cooper made too many plays to count, winning the Biletnikoff Award and earning himself a trip to New York as a Heisman finalist.
Beyond the talent, head coach Nick Saban has reiterated that this has been his favorite team to coach because of the players.
Here's what he said one week on his radio show (h/t Andrew Gribble of AL.com):
"There's a lot of really good players on our team that are really good people and good guys. And this team, regardless of whether we win another game, this is a really fun team to coach because we don't have a lot of energy vampires on this team. I've talked about that before, you spend all your time and energy because you've got four or five guys that won't ever do things the right way. You're always spending your time trying to get them to do it right. The other 95 guys that are doing right, you don't have any time to spend with them over the four or five. We don't really have players like that on our team this year.
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It’s easy to see why with players like Sims and Fowler.
Sims’ story is well-known at this point: a career backup who almost didn’t get his chance when Jake Coker transferred in, but ended up winning the job and leading Alabama on this run.
For his efforts, he was named Most Inspiring Player by his teammates. His attitude sets a standard and gives other players something to look up to.
“I think that’s one of the things that carries Blake so far on and off the field is just the presence he has, the positive mindset he brings everyday,” Kelly said. “I think when you’re around people like that it brings you up as a person as well.”
And you won’t find a more likeable guy on the team than Fowler, who overcame a knee injury in 2012 and has become a versatile weapon in Kiffin’s offense as a lead blocker, ball-carrier and receiver.
“Talk about a guy who couldn’t be more positive, just like Blake,” Kelly said of Fowler. “A lot of us come from different backgrounds, and I think what makes him so special is he’s always so open to anyone who comes in. Just a great guy to be around and I call him my dear friend. That vote was, again, voted on by players. I couldn’t be happier for Jalston.”
The four of them have been major contributors to an Alabama football team that still has plenty of goals ahead of it left to accomplish.
They perfectly represent what has made this iteration of Crimson Tide football so successful on the field and likeable off it.
Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.
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