Alabama Football: 5 overlooked players heading into the 2023 season
Before you know it, the 2023 college football season will be here. Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide will take the field on Sept. 2 against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders to begin its quest for another national championship.
As we navigate the perpetual offseason, most of the talk leading up to the college football season, relative to the Crimson Tide, is the ongoing quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa.
Instead of bogging you down with continuous quarterback talk, let’s take a few moments and look at some of the players on the roster who are not receiving quite the notoriety that they deserve.
Below is a list of five players that I believe are being slept on leading up to the 2023 season!
Seth McLaughlin
The senior center from Buford, Georgia has been a mainstay along the Alabama offensive line for more than two seasons. The savvy veteran may not wow anyone with his physical abilities, but Seth McLaughlin simply gets the job done as the anchor of the Crimson Tide offensive line.
Damon Payne Jr.
Damon Payne started to see his snaps increase towards the ladder half of the 2022 season for the Tide. Payne, a redshirt sophomore, was a highly coveted defensive lineman prospect coming out of high school and could potentially develop into one of Alabama’s best interior defensive linemen this fall.
Kobe Prentice
Kobe Prentice put together a pretty solid true freshman campaign in 2022 and could be in for an even better 2023. Despite the wide receiver room being extremely deep, Prentice has the homerun ability and should not be overlooked by Tide fans or the media.
Quandarrius Robinson
Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell are likely to be Alabama’s starters at outside linebacker in 2023 but the next guy up is senior Quandarrius Robinson who finally seems to have turned the corner as a player. Robinson has elite length and athleticism and could be a pass-rushing menace coming off the edge this season.
Jase McClellan
True freshman Justice Haynes stole the show at Alabama’s A-Day in April and it has led to a lot of folks forgetting about Jase McClellan. McClellan has been a solid back for Alabama since his freshman season in 2020 and has proven to have the ability to take it to the house from anywhere on the field and is also solid as a pass catcher out of the backfield. McClellan could be a star for the Alabama offense in 2023.
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