Terrion Arnold opens up on what he learned in his first season at Alabama

Alabama sophomore safety Terrion Arnold recently joined The Player’s Lounge to break down his first year in Tuscaloosa. Arnold did not see playing time on the football field in 2021, taking a redshirt season instead. Despite the redshirt, the first year on campus provided the 6-foot-0 corner an opportunity to watch, learn and acclimate.

“First thing’s first, I learned how disciplined I was coming from high school,” Arnold told Kyle Henderson. “I knew it was going to be a big transition but it was actually pretty, pretty easy because of just being around good people. Coach Saban, he doesn’t recruit bad people or people with character issues. There’s never any drama, people talking negatively about each other, it’s just a positive atmosphere, positive vibe. So that’s something I learned about myself, getting in there and being able to mix with the guys because obviously, everybody wants that when they get there.

“I really found myself. Found myself doing a lot of soul searching. It’s new, 17 years old, you’re a child. You’re playing with old men now. It was a process that I had to figure out but I really grew a lot from last year.”

The former four-star arrived in Tuscaloosa as the nation’s No. 35 player from the class of 2021, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. 

Arnold has clear message in response to critics

The Alabama Crimson Tide secondary was generous last season, ranking 50th in the country in total passing yards allowed (218.1 yards per game). That’s not up to par with the lofty standards of the Crimson Tide program under the Nick Saban regime. Alabama will look to tighten the screws this season with its pass defense and members of their secondary are locked in and focused on improving.

“I feel like a lot of people have really been doubting us,” Arnold said recently in an interview. “Especially kind of with our play last year. And you know Alabama’s always been in the conversation for arguably DBU. They have good secondaries. I just know with all the critics, all the outside noise kind of talking to us. We haven’t paid attention to it. So, we’re locked in on just developing. And we’ve really become a brotherhood in the secondary. Just kind of getting on our own channel and signal. And just really, really solely focusing on the development of us and each other. And I feel like we’re gonna be really, really good this year.

“We’ve got a lot of playmakers. The main thing is we get excited when people make plays. Like, it doesn’t matter who makes the plays, because the ball has no name on it.”

On3’s Wade Peery contributed to this report.