Champions of The Round Table

 
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Jabriel Washington
Sometimes when a school recruits a person, you don't see what they're recruiting him for—it just says athlete.

Well, that pretty well sums up Jabriel Washington. He can play quarterback, running back, wide receiver, corner, safety, linebacker, kick and punt returner and I'll bet he could lead in the band at halftime if they'd let him.

In other words, "Athlete" means he's athletic enough to play almost any position, though he'd need to eat cheeseburgers from now until next season for nose tackle.

Athletes are important to a team like Alabama or any school. They allow you to simply plug them in to the greatest need you have at that time. They are not just athletic in that ability, but smart too, meaning not do they have the physical capabilities, but the mental ones as well.

Washington is just that kind of player.

He is from Trinity Christian Academy—a private Christian Bible based school just north of Jackson, Tennessee off Interstate 40. They have kindergarten through high school there, and the high school has about 250 students give or take.

He is well liked in school and in the community and is a good, church-going young man with great leadership qualities.

Last year, 100 percent of the school's graduates went on to college. Washington is a good student with excellent grades and should have no problems academically.

Last season, his team only went 5-5 because they were playing with no depth, players  had to play on both sides, and they were in 2-A when they should have been a 1-A team. Washington, of course, was the best player on their team.

The feeling of going from playing in front a hundred fans or so to a stadium filled with over a hundred thousand will certainly be a shock from a player coming from little Trinity, but Washington seems the kind of young man who will take all that in stride.

He should hit Tuscaloosa at 5'11" or 6'0" and 175 pounds, and he could stand to work at a weight lifting program because the one at his present school has left him looking thin and not very muscular.

With a year in Coach Coachran's weight room, and Nick Saban and the rest of the staff grooming him, he will be ready for the SEC and could make a quick entrance on special teams.

Scout has him as the number 10 cornerback, and most services have him as a 4-star recruit. He is yet another top player from Tennessee to leave the state.

A lot of the nation's top schools recruited him, including Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee and more. In fact, Ga. Tech and Michigan offered him as a quarterback. Rich Rodriguez said he could see him as another spread-type, Micheal Vick-like player.

In the end, though, he thinks his best shot is as a cornerback that gets to work under Nick Saban. He said the facilities here, as well as the chance to play for a national championship, also had a lot to do with his choice.






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