Nick Saban recalls how Julio Jones helped establish the Alabama Standard long after he left school

There is an argument to be made that Julio Jones was the most important recruit of the Nick Saban era. An in-state five-star talent, Jones was the one who got the ball rolling for Alabama in the early days. Not just from a talent acquisition standpoint but Jones set the standard inside the program.

Jones left after the 2009 season and became one of the top players in the NFL. Alabama kept its same standard during Saban’s entire tenure in Tuscaloosa but sometimes teaching moments were required. Not everybody was up to speed.

Saban gave a story of a moment when Jones helped somebody out a few years ago. Despite being out of the program for over a decade, Jones had to set somebody straight regarding how to act while representing Alabama.

“We were having 7on7 in the summer,” Saban began while on the SEC Network desk. “The coaches are not allowed to be there. Julio Jones happened to be there, he was rehabbing. He hadn’t played there for 10 years — this is probably 2019, maybe.

“Julio is watching 7on7 and a receiver drops a ball, kicks the ball, cusses the quarterback, gets into it with the DB that was guarding him. Julio called the guy over and said ‘That’s not how we do it here.’ He hadn’t played there for 10 years but still, he understood the culture and how things got done.”

No specific names were given in the story by Saban. Alabama had some great receivers heading into the 2019 season, with four eventually being first-round picks. Even the ones who followed enjoyed fruitful careers in the Crimson Tide offense.

From a team perspective, if the timeline does match up, Alabama was not too far removed from winning a national championship in 2017 and eventually won another during the COVID-19 2020 season. The final two of Saban’s career, both being special for their own reasons.

Maybe Jones made an impact on the player and contributed toward winning a national championship in the coming seasons.

Either way, the story is a great example of the culture Saban was able to build in Tuscaloosa while making an impact. All those years later, Jones felt the need to reinforce the idea of what the Alabama culture is to a certain player during a summer workout. Letting the moment pass would have been easy, especially for an accomplished player like himself.