Forget about the changing of guard at quarterback. Alabama has seen that happen almost a dozen times during the Nick Saban era. This year’s season opener will feature a bigger football rarity for the Crimson Tide.

A total eclipse of the sun is visible roughly once every 18 months from somewhere on the earth’s surface. What Tide fans will witness Saturday night inside Bryant-Denny Stadium is six times as rare.

For the first time in nine years, Alabama is set to see a true freshman make his starting debut at left tackle.

Cam Robinson was the last Tide lineman to achieve the feat, starting the 2014 opener against West Virginia. Now, 3,290 days and 127 games later, Kadyn Proctor will become just the second true freshman to take on blindside blocking duties under Saban.

So what makes the Des Moines, Iowa native the right man for the job?

It isn’t just his five-star talent. Proctor joins Alabama as the No. 1 tackle in his class, but the Tide has plucked the nation’s top player at that position in five of the last seven years. None of the other four signees started at left tackle during their first season.

It isn’t due to lack of options either. Alabama could have easily flipped projected first-round pick J.C. Latham to the left side or gone with fellow five-star talent Elijah Pritchett at the blindside role.

Instead, Proctor spent the past eight months fighting his way into the first team while relying on the same set of traits that have propelled him to success over the past 18 years.

Before breaking into an evaluation of what he has seen from Proctor this offseason, Saban started with the lineman’s most obvious trait.

“He’s shown me he’s big,” the head coach began.

That’s been the case since birth.

Proctor was born at 10 pounds, 4 ounces and has always towered over his peers. Early on, that caused a few problems.

Proctor’s mother, Sarah Perkins, had to pay for a couple of smashed car windshields that served as the landing spot for baseballs her son belted over his youth-field fence. Then there was the time an opposing coach pitched a fit during one of Proctor’s third-grade baseball games.

“It was to the point where she was throwing her clipboard and screaming and yelling at her players,” Perkins recalled. “She was accusing Kadyn of being a seventh grader and saying that we cheated. I eventually had to provide a copy of his birth certificate to prove he was in third grade.”

Complications only continued during Proctor’s early days on the football field.

His youth football league didn’t include a weight limit and instead paired him up with other third- and fourth-graders of all shapes and sizes. Proctor even had a couple of girls on his team who had the misfortune of stumbling into his path during practice.

“He was afraid he was going to hurt people,” Perkins said. “He was afraid to be too aggressive. We had to tell him that it’s OK, that he was supposed to knock people down. He would feel bad about it. It wasn’t until he was older that he began to realize that there wasn’t anything wrong with it.”

Technically, the roughly 6-foot wide and 4-foot deep baptismal tubs inside Tuscaloosa’s Church of the Highlands could have fit Proctor’s current 6-foot-7, 360-pound frame. It would have just been a tight squeeze.

Fortunately, campus pastor Bubba Massey had a better option.

Massey’s eyes got a bit big when Proctor and fellow freshman offensive lineman Olaus Alinen made the decision to get baptized in July. Church of the Highlands had baptized several hefty Alabama athletes in the past, but the duo’s combined 680 pounds was still going to be a challenge. Thankfully a third freshman lineman was able to step up as Tuscaloosa native Wilkin Formby offered up his family pool for the ceremony.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see these athletes grow in their faith,” Massey said. “It came from them coming on Sundays to coming to our college ministry on Thursday nights. Now we see them all attending church together and making Jesus a big part of their life.”

Despite the demands football puts on his schedule, Proctor has always made time for his faith. Growing up, Wednesdays were especially hectic as he shuffled back and forth between school, football and his church group for 18-hour days.

“It didn’t matter how tired he was coming home from practice,” Perkins said. “He’d come home, shower and would be out the door to youth group. There’d be times when he didn’t eat supper until 10:30 at night, but that never stopped him.”

While it isn’t hard to pick out Proctor in a prayer circle, his time at church allowed him to briefly escape the five-star spotlight that followed him throughout high school. Sure, the towering lineman was the first pick for summer camp basketball games, but he was equally popular while reading to elementary school kids or lending a hand in community events.

“He’s very loving,” said Logan Beck, the youth director of Oakwood United Methodist Church in Iowa. “He had a way of connecting with everyone, no matter who they were. Even though he was always in the spotlight and well-known, he never made anyone feel less than him. He’s big in size, but no one ever felt small around him.”

By the time Southeast Polk’s coaching staff got its hands on Proctor, he was already somewhat of a known commodity. The problem was, he was built more for success on the hardwood.

According to Southeast Polk head football coach Brad Zelenovich, Proctor stood at a lean 6-foot-5, 240 pounds during the beginning of his freshman year. Typically, that would have been big enough to bring him up to the varsity level, but at that point Proctor would have had a hard time breaking into a starting offensive line that featured a trio of future college football players as well as a Division I wrestler.

Instead, Zelenovich made his star prospect grind for his spot with the big boys. Proctor’s illustrious high school career began at the junior-varsity level as he was handed starting spots on both sides of the ball. That saw him remain on the field for nearly every rep, starting at left tackle on offense before flipping over to the defensive line.

Zelenovich’s plan was to polish Proctor’s game while developing him into more of a leader. In doing so, the head coach unleashed a whole new beast.

The humble start only fueled Protctor more, increasing his drive on and off the field. After a freshman growth spurt added two more inches to his frame, the lineman bulked up 40 more pounds, showing up to camp the following summer at a jacked 6-foot-7, 280 pounds.

“He’s worked his tail off in the weight room to get where he wanted to be on the football field,” Southeast Polk offensive line coach Jon Cochran said. “Ultimately, the biggest thing I’ve seen in the last three years coaching him is his work ethic. As good as he’s been on the field, the offseason has always been where we’ve seen him shine the most. I wouldn’t say Kadyn is the most vocal guy, but he’s a guy who’s going to show up every day and show his teammates how to work.”

Proctor earned the starting right tackle role for the varsity team heading into his sophomore season. At that point, he was already beginning to garner attention from several top college programs. However, his road to high school success still came with some growing pains.

Despite his physical improvements, Proctor struggled with his technique during his first varsity season, often allowing craftier defenders to slip past him into the backfield. That led to a few early frustrations as well as a couple of come-to-Jesus talks with the team’s older linemen.

“We had a little trouble with him those first few weeks, but we set him straight,” said former Southeast Polk center Cade Borund, who now plays for North Dakota. “He had to grow up fast, but a few of our O-line guys really helped him out with getting him up to speed on how we do things, how to be mature and how to be that mauler that he is.”

Over time, things began to click. Toward the end of the season, Proctor’s performance on the field began to live up to his potential. That momentum carried over into another transformative offseason in which he bulked up again to more than 300 pounds.

After vaulting up to No. 5 overall in the Rivals rankings to begin his junior year, Proctor became a staple in Southeast Polk’s offense, leading the Rams to a pair of state titles and a 24-2 record over his final two seasons.

“I think his work ethic really allowed him to make that jump,” Borund said. “He was always a grinder. He was always getting after it in the facility and in the weight room. You just knew he was going to figure it out.”

The internet is littered with Kadyn Proctor’s freakish athletic feats. There’s that time he pushed a pickup truck loaded with teammates, the time he showed off his dunking ability and the dozens of clips of him abusing defenders on the football field.

However, the play that comes to mind when Zelenovich thinks of Proctor’s athleticism doesn’t show up in any of the lineman’s highlight films.

It occurred in the middle of his junior season during a marque matchup against Prairie High School. After jumping out to a 14-0 start in the first quarter, Southeast Polk nearly threw away its momentum right before the half as quarterback Jaxon Dailey was intercepted on a pass to the end zone.

Upon picking off the pass at the goal line, a Prairie defensive back seemed to have a clear path down the field. However, Proctor was able to chase the defender down before he could break off a big return, keeping Prairie scoreless heading into the break. The play ended up being crucial as Southeast Polk held on for a 21-20 victory on the night.

“Here’s probably a 180-pound kid, and all of a sudden you see Kadyn Proctor chase him down and make the tackle,” Zelenovich said. “Kadyn might have had a little bit of an angle, but it’s pretty impressive when you see it on film. He was able to save a bigger return or a touchdown right before the half. You just shake your head.”

These days, Proctor’s athleticism is not limited to his brute strength. Just ask Alabama star edge rusher Dallas Turner, who admits it’s getting harder to slip past the lineman during practice.

“One thing that I will say about Kadyn is that your first move is not always gonna beat him,” Turner said. “He’s such a raw talent, and the potential is unmatched, but he knows how to recover very well. So if you beat him on the first move or something like that, the recovery is there, like he’s back at you, like you need another move. He’s very eye-opening, especially being on the O-line with the ones as a freshman too, like that’s impressive.”

Turner and Alabama might as well get used to being surprised by the freshman lineman this fall. After all, talents like Proctor don’t come around every day.

“He’s only going to keep getting better,” Cochran said. “He’s focused on getting the mental side of the game down, and then he’s just so gifted, both with size and speed. Put all those attributes together, and he’s a rarity that you don’t see all too often.”