Julio Jones stopped talking for a moment. He was already emotional when he started explaining what Nick Saban meant to him. Then he got to his mother, the sacrifices she made while raising him, and what Alabama gave him as a young man from Foley.
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“I come from, like, humble beginnings, and my mom sacrificed so much for us,” Jones said through tears on ESPN. He paused again. “Once I got to college, it was just like the opportunity that I have in front of me.
Often, Jones has spoken about the work ethic that his mother had who used to work long hours.
“It was just like, I can’t pitch this away. Coach Saban, he just, you know, directed me to become the man I am,” he continued.
Saban didn’t recruit Jones because he thought the five-star receiver needed to be handled gently. He recruited him because he believed Jones could become one of the players around whom Alabama could build its revival.
Nick Saban had only been hired in Tuscaloosa when his staff started studying Jones at Foley High School. According to Sports Illustrated’s account of the recruitment, Saban watched only a few plays before stopping the film.
“We gotta get him,” Saban recalled in 2017. “This is the type of kid you can build your program around.”
Jones was already being chased by virtually every major program. He eventually chose Alabama over schools including Oklahoma, Florida, Florida State, and Texas Tech. He had no interest in being promised a starting job.
That was one reason Saban’s pitch worked. Other coaches told Jones he would start. Jones later explained that wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to earn the position.
Saban reportedly told him Alabama would win with or without him. Jones liked that. There was another recruiting moment that has become a part of the folklore. USC’s legendary head coach Pete Carroll tried to visit Foley to recruit Jones.
The school pulled Jones inside and kept Carroll from meeting him. The exact details of who made that decision have been disputed over the years, but Carroll later confirmed that people at the school prevented him from getting to Jones.
Alabama’s coaches were already moving aggressively to keep the state’s biggest recruit at home. Jones signed in February 2008 as the nation’s top-rated receiver. Alabama’s class was ranked No. 1, and Jones was one of its centerpieces.
Saban then did something that mattered more than the recruiting pitch. He played him. Jones started the opener against Clemson as a true freshman and finished his first season with 58 catches for 924 yards.
Alabama went 12-2, won the SEC West, and reached the Sugar Bowl. Jones was named SEC Freshman of the Year. A year later, he was part of the team that won the national championship. But the relationship was not built on highlights.
One of the clearest examples came against LSU in 2009. Alabama was in a tight game when Jones made a mental mistake near the goal line and stayed on the field when he was supposed to come off.
Alabama was penalized for having 12 men in the huddle. Saban erupted. It was the sort of scene that could embarrass a young player in front of 92,000 people. Jones didn’t disappear afterward.
Later in that game, with Alabama needing a play, he caught a 73-yard touchdown from Greg McElroy. The mistake was followed by the response Nick Saban wanted. That’s one reason Jones talks about Saban as a teacher rather than a coach.
The receiver’s numbers also changed. Jones went from 924 yards as a freshman to 596 as a sophomore, partly because of injuries and a different offensive environment.
He returned for his junior season and produced 78 catches for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns. In total, he finished his Alabama career with 179 receptions and 2,653 yards, second in school history in both categories at the time.
Saban was demanding about more than production. Jones later explained what he learned in Tuscaloosa. “We had NFL practices,” Jones said after entering the league.
He remembered the long meetings, early mornings, and the expectation that players take responsibility for their own actions. That was not an accident. Saban had already spent two seasons as an NFL head coach with the Miami Dolphins.
His Alabama program was built to resemble the professional environment he believed his players would eventually enter. At Alabama’s 2011 Pro Day, Saban talked about developing players’ habits and priorities away from football as part of preparing them for the NFL.
Jones noticed it. When he chose Alabama, he specifically said Nick Saban’s NFL background mattered because he believed the coach could prepare him for the next level.
Three years later, the Falcons traded up to No. 6 in the 2011 draft to select him. Atlanta gave Cleveland five picks to move 21 spots. Jones became the player Saban believed he could be when he first watched that Foley film.
Saban’s own assessment of Jones was telling. Before the draft, he said there had initially been questions about Jones, but that the receiver had developed. Alabama then produced a school-record four first-round picks.
Nick Saban pointed to the program’s development and preparation as a reason NFL teams trusted Alabama players. Jones never forgot where that started. And he still hasn’t, even after being a Pro Bowler in the league 7 times and sealing his legendary status with the Falcons.