Sitting in a sea of DayGlo orange, Bruce Rollinson peered out at the 50-yard line inside Neyland Stadium. Roughly 2,200 miles from home, he was looking for a couple of familiar faces.
He didn’t have to look for long.
As Alabama players jogged onto the field for warmups ahead of their top-15 showdown against Tennessee, Domani Jackson and Zabien Brown reached midfield and turned toward the stands. They spotted their former high school coach and threw a thumbs-up—a simple, preplanned tribute.
Rollinson felt a surge of pride. For 34 years, he built Mater Dei into a high school football powerhouse, molding elite talent year after year. Now, two of his former players were key pieces of Alabama’s defense, thriving at the highest level of college football.
“It made me feel unbelievably great,” Rollinson said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
The connection between Alabama and Mater Dei goes beyond talent. It’s rooted in a culture of discipline and brotherhood that Rollinson cultivated with his players. It made Alabama a natural fit for Mater Dei players like Jackson and Brown, who already knew how to thrive in that environment.
