Alabama Freshman WR Calvin Ridley a Star in the Making

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — First, the disclaimer: If you asked Nick Saban or anyone on the University of Alabama football team to compare Calvin Ridley to his high-profile predecessors, they would tell you that he’s not Amari Cooper or Julio Jones.

All three are physically different and have different styles of play, and nothing can replace the level of experience the former players had without suiting up for a couple of seasons (at least). Sure, they’re all wide receivers, but that’s about where the comparisons end, because each one is used differently.

Besides, Ridley is still considered a college football pup.

“It's just, 'Go out there and do your job,'” senior center Ryan Kelly said, describing  the approach of all the wide receivers. “They don't want to go out there and be Amari Cooper.”

However, if you want to say that Ridley is following in their footsteps, especially Cooper’s, that’s a different story, because he clearly is. They even hail from the same region, about 30 minutes apart in South Florida. 

"I've always thought he was really talented since the day he got here," senior quarterback Jake Coker said. "Now that he's getting more and more comfortable, it's getting exciting to see what he can do."

With No. 10 Alabama hitting the midway point of the season, Ridley has emerged to lead all wide receivers with 31 catches, 385 yards and three touchdowns. His back-to-back 100-yard performances didn’t just come against any teams but rather SEC opponents, and in both games he made plays that could be described as backbreaking.

It began at Georgia on Oct. 3, when his 50-yard reception off what looked like a fake screen was the first big offensive play of the game.

“It was kind of a busted play, and he got open,” Coker said. “It worked.”

So did the Cooper-like 45-yard touchdown strike that essentially put the game away in the second quarter. Ridley finished with five receptions for 120 yards in his breakout game and then topped that with nine catches for 140 yards against Arkansas last Saturday.

That time, his 81-yard touchdown broke the game open. The play was designed so that the other receiver acted as a decoy to draw the attention of the safety, to make sure that the defender on Ridley didn’t get any help.

“It was something we had been working on all week,” said Coker, while Saban called it a “big momentum-changer.”

It sparked a three-score run, as Alabama quickly went from being down 7-3 with one minute and 39 seconds to go in the third quarter to being ahead 20-7 with 10:07 remaining in the game.

"It was huge for us having Calvin just be the playmaker that he is,” said senior wide receiver Richard Mullaney—who had Alabama’s other touchdown reception and afterward said he was “wide-(expletive) open,” only to blush after realizing what he said.

With Alabama’s numbers down at the playmaker positions, Saban made it no secret that this could be an unusual season in terms of freshmen having the opportunity to make an immediate impact. Running back Damien Harris and tight end Hale Hentges have both played in five of the Crimson Tide’s first six games, but it’s been especially true at wide receiver.

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Last year’s starters, Cooper, DeAndrew White and Christion Jones, were essentially the only established veterans, and all have moved on. Sophomore Cam Sims suffered a torn ACL in the spring and is back playing but has just three catches for 21 yards. Sophomore Robert Foster earned one of the open starting jobs, only to be sidelined by a shoulder injury.

Consequently, Alabama’s "X" position could be renamed the "F receiver position," because the three-deep is now all freshmen: Ridley, Daylon Charlot and Deionte Thompson. The other starters are sophomore ArDarius Stewart and fifth-year transfer Mullaney, who has become the Crimson Tide’s key possession receiver out of the slot.

Combine that with a new quarterback, and it’s pretty understandable why the offense has been such a work in progress, but at the same time, Ridley’s rise can’t be considered much of a surprise.

As a 5-star recruit, 247Sports rated him the 11th-best prospect in the nation and the top wide receiver in the Class of 2015. Cooper didn’t have that designation (45th and fifth, respectively) in 2012, but both were on the short list of top prospects out of the Sunshine State.

“Calvin has really kind of showed some elite talent of guys over the years we’ve been able to be around,” offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said during training camp. “He’s shown that talent. Now, there’s a long way to go to get to that level, but his speed and the way that he catches the ball and his transition, if he does the other things all the way through, which is a lot, I think he can be really special.”

Game	Julio Jones 2009	Amari Cooper 2012	Calvin Ridley 2015
1	Clemson 5-28-1	Michigan 1-15-0	Wisconsin 3-22
2	Tulane 1-13-0	W. Kentucky 2-12-0	Mid. Tenn. 4-37
3	W.Kentucky 5-66-1	Arkansas 2-46-1	Ole Miss 6-28
4	Arkansas 1-25-1	Fla. Atlantic 4-65-0	ULM 4-38-1
5	Georgia 5-94-1	Ole Miss 8-84-2	Georgia 5-120-1
6	Kentucky 3-52-0	Missouri 4-41-0	Arkansas 9-140-1
Total	19-278, 4 TDs	21-263, 3 TDs	31-385, 4 TDs

Kiffin also called Cooper one of the hardest-working players he’s ever seen, a designation of which you know Ridley’s been reminded on a regular basis, and Saban said something similar about Jones when he wore crimson and white (2009-11).

Statistically, Jones only had three 100-yard games his freshman season, the first being against the team he tortured the most over his illustrious career, Tennessee (six catches, 103 yards). The other two were at LSU and against Florida in the 2008 SEC Championship Game, as Jones quickly developed a reputation for being at his best during big games.

Cooper’s first 100-yard game was also against Tennessee (seven receptions, 162 yards and two touchdowns). He also didn’t make his first start until Alabama’s sixth game of the 2012 season at rain-soaked Missouri. Yet he finished his first collegiate campaign with five 100-yard performances in his last seven games.

Jones had 58 catches for 924 yards and four touchdowns, which at the time were all Crimson Tide records for a freshman—the previous holders were Ozzie Newsome for the receiving yards record (374) and A.C. Carter for receptions and touchdowns.

Cooper set the bar even higher, though, with 59 catches for 1,000 yards, and his 11 touchdowns broke the 62-year-old Crimson Tide record of Al Lary (10 in 1950). For his career, he made 228 receptions for 3,463 yards and 31 touchdowns, all UA records.

Alabama can only hope Ridley is able to approach those numbers. Cooper averaged 16.9 yards per reception (14.6 during his first six games), while Jones averaged 15.9 (12.76). Ridley is averaging 12.4 but looks like he’s just getting started.

"I feel like he's definitely grown since he's gotten here, definitely mature for his age," Mullaney said. “He's obviously really fast, makes plays for us, so I'm excited for him."

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.