Alabama’s legendary 2008 signing class produced a Heisman Trophy winner, five first-round NFL draft picks and numerous players who won All-America honors and/or went on to long careers in professional football.
But the player from that group who might have had the most-decorated college career was not Julio Jones, Dont’a Hightower or even Mark Ingram. It was an offensive lineman from Evangelical Christian High School in Memphis who just happened to be the next-door neighbor of Nick Saban’s agent and the son of a former Alabama basketball player.
Barrett Jones redshirted his freshman year at Alabama, but by the time his days with the Crimson Tide were done after the 2012 season, he’d started in three national championship games (at three different positions), was a unanimous All-American and won five individual national awards. Oh, and he graduated in three years with a 4.0 grade point average in accounting.
Jones’ father, Rex, played basketball at Alabama in the mid-1980s. The family settled in Memphis, where they were close friends with Jimmy Sexton, who then and now represented Saban along with dozens of other college football coaches.
Jones might have gone to Alabama anyway given his family ties, though the connection to Saban through Sexton didn’t hurt. Asked about Jones toward the end of his career with the Crimson Tide, Saban positively gushed.
“He’s smart. He’s a very good athlete with quickness,” Saban said. “He’s got strength, plays with good enough power, that I think he has a total understanding of exactly what he needs to do, how he needs to do it and why it’s important to do it that way.
“He also affects everyone else he plays with by sharing that, and making calls that helps everyone else play with more confidence as well.”
Jones became Alabama’s first-team right guard as a redshirt freshman in 2009, starting all 14 games as the Crimson Tide secured the first national championship of the Saban era. He played the same position in 2010, earning first-team All-SEC honors.
Following the departure of starting left tackle James Carpenter, Jones moved to that position in 2011. All he did that year was again earn All-SEC recognition, while also being named a unanimous All-American and receiving three national awards — the Outland Trophy (top interior lineman), the Jim Parker Trophy (top offensive lineman) and the Wuerffel Trophy (community service) — as well as the SEC’s Jacobs Blocking Trophy.
Alabama won another national championship in 2011, but Jones was on the move again the following year. He took over at center and led the Crimson Tide to its third national title in four years, again taking home first-team All-SEC and All-America honors as well as the Rimington Trophy as the country’s top center and the William V. Campbell Trophy as the nation’s top scholar-athlete.
The only major award Jones never won at Alabama was the Heisman Trophy, which has never gone to an offensive lineman. The Campbell Trophy, however, is considered the academic equivalent of the Heisman.
Jones suffered what was later revealed as a serious foot injury in the 2012 SEC championship, though he played through the pain in that game and in the BCS title game win over Notre Dame in January. He entered the NFL draft anyway, but after foot surgery caused him to miss the Combine, slipped to the third round.
Jones played two seasons with the St. Louis Rams, then split the 2015 season between Pittsburgh, Chicago and Philadelphia before hanging up his spikes. He ended up playing in only 10 games as a pro, all with St. Louis.
In 2017, Jones was hired by ESPN Radio as a college football color analyst and also occasionally filled in on Crimson Tide Sports Network broadcasts. Moreover, he left an overwhelmingly positive impression on his alma mater.
