Junior college transfer Isaiah Buggs hoping for breakout chance
Some players are more ready than others when they arrive in college. Isaiah Buggs thinks he’s ready.
“If they bring in a junior college guy in, they expect him to already be prepared,” Buggs said last week on National Signing Day. “They don’t want to have to go back and teach him all over again.”
The defensive lineman from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College has a bit of a head start on most of the other signees in Alabama’s 2017 class. He’s two years older than his freshman teammates and was the No. 1 junior college prospect in the country last year. He arrived in early January, practicing with the Crimson Tide a few times leading up to the national championship game.
He also had some inside information on what to expect at Alabama.
“My junior college coaches let me know about (Nick) Saban,” he said.
The staff at Mississippi Gulf Coast has ties with Alabama’s head coach. All-American defensive lineman Terrence Cody transferred to UA from MGCCC some nine years ago. There are still a couple of defensive coaches for the Bulldogs who were on staff then, including Stevon Moore.
Moore’s resume includes four seasons as a safety for the Cleveland Browns, from 1992-95. He played for Saban when UA’s coach was defensive coordinator in Cleveland from 1991-94.
“Coach Saban coached me and drilled me and drilled me and drilled me to make me the player that I was when I was in the NFL,” Moore said. “Made me the person that I am today. Made me a better husband, a better father, a better coach. I told Isaiah, I said, ‘Man, you’re the type of player that Nick Saban would love to have.’”
Buggs looks like a good fit in Alabama’s defense. At 6-foot-5 and 290 pounds, he’ll be able to compete to fill the vacancies left by Jonathan Allen and Dalvin Tomlinson on the defensive line. MGCCC played with three down defensive linemen most of the time, and Moore said Buggs would play both inside and outside. He led the team with 75 tackles in 10 games and had 10 tackles for loss with 3.5 sacks.
He weighed closer to 240 pounds when he arrived at MGCCC and had played basketball in high school. He wanted to play basketball in junior college as well, but the coaches persuaded him to focus solely on football.
“Don’t play all the sports and be good at it, play one sport and be great at it,” Moore said. “He took that advice.”
He gained 25 pounds his first year, then 25 more the next year. He took to coaching and kept developing.
Buggs bought into the system at MGCCC and trusted he would land in the right place. The Ruston, La., native was also heavily recruited by LSU. But he decided to bolt the bayou for Alabama.
“It means a lot, to let everyone know that wherever you’re from, Louisiana or whatever, you can come here and play if they recruit you,” he said. “You don’t always have to be an LSU guy, go home and play. Do something different for a time or change, so I just came over here to Alabama.”
Alabama had opportunity to offer on the defensive line with the departures of two seniors. He won’t have a job handed to him, but Buggs could read the depth chart and saw where he fit.
Saban was consistent in his recruitment of Buggs, and that constancy was reassuring in a year where LSU changed coaches. Alabama also had at least one endorsement.
“I wasn’t encouraging him too much,” Moore said. “I don’t like telling our players where to go, but I was hoping he would make that decision. I told him if he made that decision, it would be the second-best decision he ever made. The first was coming to Gulf Coast. And the second one is going to Alabama.”
There were similarities between MGCCC and Alabama. The Bulldogs don’t have the support staff and services that Alabama offers, but study hall and tutoring were a regular part of his routine in junior college.
Some freshmen find themselves blindsided by the move from high school to college. Buggs is no freshman.
“We work out now at 6:30 in the morning (at Alabama),” he said. “At Gulf Coast, we used to some days wake up at 5 in the morning.”
There were few surprises when Buggs got to campus. Mississippi Gulf Coast made sure he was ready.
“With Isaiah, I truly believe he’s going to be an All-American,” Moore said. “The same thing I told him about Terrence Cody. He’s going to help them win a championship. My thing is, just go through the process. Don’t think about the NFL. Go through the process and you’ll be there at the end of the day.”
Reach Ben Jones at ben@tidesports.com or 205-722-0196.