And to Hickman, Harrison being just a part-time defensive player combined with Harrison deciding not to attend any Rivals recruiting camps beyond his sophomore year of high school contributed to the current Tide freshman not being ranked higher as a recruit by sites such as Rivals and ESPN.
ESPN rated the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Harrison, who impressed Alabama coaches enough during the spring that he will enter the fall as the Tide's second-team free safety and first-team dime back, as just the 25th-best safety in this year's recruiting class.
"For Ronnie, it was never about having to prove himself to the guys that give out the stars and the rankings," Hickman said of Harrison, who was a consensus four-star recruit. "It was more so about just proving what he can do on the field in his play and to his teammates. ... He got invited to the Under Armour combine and the U.S. Army and all those things, and we talked about going. And if he had gone and performed, he would have been a five-star kid and probably rated extremely high, but he just chose not to do those.
"He had a goal from Day One to be on campus somewhere. And once he went to Alabama, he knew where he wanted to be. So the All-Star games and things were fun, but he didn't need to do those."
