.
Caleb Downs: What Alabama football is getting with this 5-star
There will likely be more than a few ‘Bama folks grace this page. Perhaps in the hope to learn more about their latest 5-star commitment.
There will be a lot to like here, including:
- He is the son of a college coach and recruiting coordinator. Credit current East Tennessee assistant coach Gary Downs with that father figure/mentor role.
- Downs watches more game film than any player at Mill Creek. We’re talking 100-hour gaps during the season over the next-most vigilant film rat.
- The coaching staff at Mill Creek worries about him overtraining. That’s how hard he applies himself to be great at football. It was to the point when he decided to take off to the beach for spring break earlier this year, they celebrated that decision.
- The 5-star safety is a straight A-student in honors classes at Mill Creek.
- The 6-foot-1, 185-pound rising senior has missed one workout in four years at Mill Creek. That was from a flight bump coming back from a college visit. He was torn up about that.
- The nation’s No. 1 safety professes a deep Christian faith. “I try to be a great Christian,” he said earlier this year. “I’m a son of God. That’s a big thing for me. Knowing that whatever happens or whatever accomplishments I might make, it is all through him.”
- He’s no brainiac, but he could be. He’s no superjock, but he could be. Downs even has enough savvy mixing it up with adults in conversation to drop in a “Star Wars” movie reference here and there. He’s comfortable enough in his own skin to point out he stays away from the mainstream movie buff opinions about “Empire Strikes Back” and he likes “Revenge of the Sith” the best.
The three-time MaxPreps.com All-American is the most Saturday-ready safety prospect I’ve seen in over 20-plus years covering and reporting on high school athletes.
Instead of being the “The Chosen One” in Athens, he’s now off to play for college football’s reigning empire at Alabama.