Alabama’s Veteran Leader Showed Shephard the Alabama Standard

Nick Saban had a stat that may have been more unbelievable than any other during his time at Alabama. Until the 2023 football season, every recruiting class at Alabama had won at least one national championship.

Most of them won multiple national championships. Every three years, the minimum that players had to be in college before heading to the NFL, Alabama and Nick Saban won a national championship. Every player left the Capstone with a ring.

In 2023, that trend ended with Alabama's overtime loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the Rose Bowl. Alabama's last national championship came during the 2020 season, and just four players remain on the TIde's roster from that season: Jah-Marien Latham, Tim Smith, Quandarrius Robinson, and Malachi Moore. Add Michigan transfer Keon Sabb, and only five players on Alabama's roster currently own a national championship ring.

Get our free mobile app

Moore and the long-term Tide players earned that ring more than three years ago, and Moore is ready for another one. He was a team captain last season and one of the more vocal ones, and that trend looks to continue in the spring of Moore's final college season.

JaMarcus Shephard, Alabama's wide receiver coach, spent Wednesday morning with Wimp and Barry Sanderson on Inside the Locker Room and spoke about Moore's impact on Alabama, ""We were breaking a huddle and one of our players, Malachi Moore, he was breaking the huddle for the team," recalled wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard during a Wednesday morning interview on Tide 100.9. "And he said, 'Everybody get in here. Get in here! Hey listen, let me tell you what: I'm tired of losing around here! I'm tired of losing around here!'"

Moore has lost six games across four seasons of college football while at Alabama.

Shephard said he looked at the other assistants and said, "'I think they won 12 games last year?' Honestly, that's when it really brought it to the forefront and really gave me a sense as to where I was at. In that moment, it really clicked and I said, 'Yep, we're at Alabama.'"

Wyatt Fulton is the Brand Manager and DME for Tide 100.9, serving as an on-air host from 11:00 a.m. to noon CT every weekday and Sports Reporter covering Alabama Football and Alabama Men's Basketball. For more coverage, follow him at @FultonW_ on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.