Alabama football countdown to kickoff: No. 97, A very exclusive club

Change that criteria to two-time All-Americans, and you’re talking about fewer than 20 men. Tighten it again to three-time All-Americans, and the list is two.

Both played the same position, around a decade apart. One of them wore No. 97.

Cornelius Bennett is one of two three-time All-Americans in Alabama football history, a dominant force at linebacker for the Crimson Tide from 1983-86. Before an All-Pro NFL career spent primarily with the Buffalo Bills, he was an All-American for the Crimson Tide in 1984, 1985 and 1986, was SEC Player of the Year and won the Lombardi Award as the nation’s top defensive player as a senior and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Alabama’s other three-time All-American is also a linebacker, Woodrow Lowe. Wearing No. 47, Lowe — who later played 11 seasons with the NFL’s San Diego Chargers — was an All-American at Alabama in 1973, 1974 and 1975, played on a national championship as a junior and has also been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Both are Alabama natives, Lowe from Phenix City, Bennett from Birmingham. And both made immediate impacts as true freshmen.

Lowe’s freshman year, 1972, coincided with a new NCAA rule allowing first-year players to participate on the varsity for the first time. Prior to that, they had been consigned to freshman teams.

Lowe took advantage, and actually was on the field as part of the kickoff team for Alabama’s first play in its season-opener vs. Duke. He was a part-time starter that year, before taking on a full-time role as a sophomore in 1973.

Alabama won the national championship during Lowe’s sophomore season, in which he attained All-America honors for the first time. In his four seasons, the Crimson Tide went 43-5 with four straight SEC championships.

Lowe finished his Alabama career with 315 tackles, which was a program record at the time. After his playing days ended, he embarked on a long coaching career, spending time in high school, college and in the NFL.

Lowe also started what became a strong family connection to Alabama football, with younger brother Eddie also playing linebacker for the Crimson Tide. Eddie Lowe was a senior on Paul “Bear” Bryant’s final Alabama team in 1982, and is now mayor of Phenix City. (In addition, Eddie Lowe’s son, Jonathan, played running back for the Crimson Tide during Nick Saban’s first season.)

Bennett was the prize recruit of Ray Perkins’ first Alabama recruiting class, a two-way star at fullback and linebacker at Ensley High School. There are those who saw Bennett play as a freshman who believed he might have been the rare player who had the ability to jump straight from high school to the NFL.

Instead, he was a four-year starter and regular dominator for the Alabama defense. Bennett led the team in tackles as a sophomore and totaled 10 sacks and 19 tackles for loss with six forced fumbles as a senior.

It was during that 1986 senior season where Bennett executed the signature play of his career — and one of the most-memorable in program history — during a 28-6 victory over Notre Dame. Bennett came through unblocked and crushed Fighting Irish quarterback Steve Beuerlein, a play immortalized in a popular Daniel Moore painting and known to Crimson Tide fans merely as “The Sack.”

Bennett was the No. 2 pick in the 1988 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts, but was later traded to Buffalo after failing to reach an agreement on a contract. He helped the Bills to four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93, though they lost each time.