Nick Saban, Alabama add 26-year-old former Marine, Colorado State DL as walk-on

Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban has added a walk-on transfer from Colorado State to the team’s roster. Uniquely, this player, Coby McNeal, is a 26-year-old veteran who served in the Marines.

According to AL.com, Nick Saban is bringing Coby McNeal on to play tight end for the Crimson Tide. Worth noting, Joe Cox, the Alabama tight ends coach, served in the same role with Colorado State from 2016-19.

A native of Dothan, Alabama, McNeal graduated from Ashford Academy. Upon graduation, he joined the Marine Corps and spent six years serving as an aviation electrician and crew chief on a V-22 Osprey. He spent time in Australia and the Middle East.

“I don’t think I would have passed college if I had gone to college,” Coby McNeal said while at Colorado State.

“So, I went into the military and got myself in order. I got good order and discipline in my life. I went there and did six years in the military. It was awesome. I loved it.”

McNeal enrolled at Colorado State in January of 2022. Shortly after, he walked on to the team as a defensive lineman, though he played tight end in high school.

“That was really difficult. I was still in pretty good shape coming from the Marine Corps to football, but football shape is different from Marine Corps shape, that’s for sure, especially down in the trenches in the D-line,” McNeal said to the Dothan Eagle. “It was a pretty rough learning curve especially since I’m coming from not playing football in seven years to a position I’ve never played before and just getting thrown into a D-I program.”

McNeal appeared on the team’s website Tuesday, listed as a redshirt freshman tight end. He will turn 27 in May.

Nick Saban’s message to young coaches and player

Nick Saban is one of the greatest coaches to ever compete in college sports. A huge part of that is his mentality, as he explained to young coaches and players.

“That’s the big thing now; everybody’s worried about what everybody thinks. And we got the internet and Twitter and Facebook and all these. Everybody’s worrying about what everybody else thinks; how about focusing on what’s in front of you? And do the right thing based on that, not what they think,” Nick Saban said.