Why Alabama freshman LaBryan Ray's recent rise should come as no surprise
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The first time Alabama defensive lineman Da’Ron Payne saw freshman LaBryan Ray in person he thought he watching an outside linebacker at work.
Listed at 272 pounds, Ray had more than 35 pounds on the average linebacker on the Crimson Tide’s roster. He even had a whole 10 pounds on the heaviest of the group (Anfernee Jennings), but Payne didn’t see his size.
What he saw was the same athleticism that Ray, a defensive lineman, showed the world when he hunted Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond down in the open field. The play resulted in a 14-yard sack on a second-and-12 play during the fourth quarter of Alabama’s 27-19 victory over the weekend.
“That was a legitimate one-on-one open field tackle against a guy that should be a lot more athletic than you,” said Wade Waldrop, Ray’s coach from James Clemens High School.
Waldrop wasn’t surprised that Ray was able to catch Mond, who managed to escape the Crimson Tide pass rush time after time on Saturday. The head coach had seen that type of athleticism before many times.
He said he was more surprised that Ray was able to so thoroughly outmuscle an SEC tackle like Texas A&M’s Koda Martin, but that too didn’t make much of an impact on Waldrop.
“For me, the best part of the play was watching him celebrate a little after,” Waldrop said. “The emotion he was showing, he was obviously fired up about it. And that just lets you know how hard those guys work. When they do get an opportunity and make a play, it’s exciting.”
That sack and the celebration that followed weren’t supposed to happen. None of that was a part of Alabama coach Nick Saban’s plan for Ray.
Ray, the No. 1 player in the state of Alabama in the 2017 class, was supposed to redshirt and spend the season learning under guys like Payne and defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand.
Then Alabama lost four linebackers in the opener and everything changed. For a few weeks, Ray practiced with the outside linebackers, just like Payne always expected him too. However, Hand’s injury against Ole Miss put the freshman right back in the mix on the defensive line.
“We felt like he was a very instinctive, good, play-hard kind of guy,” Saban said. “He is all that, and he is smart. He is able to go in there and execute and play and react the way we'd like for him to.
“He's developed nicely and we're going to continue to play him."
To his teammates, it doesn’t matter what the plan was before. If he’s going to see time on Alabama’s defense, then he’ll have to live up to the standard of excellence set by the starters.
“He’s coming along,” Payne said. “He’s always in the playbook, getting extra with the coaches and stuff and just looking for ways to improve. I think that’s showing a lot.”
Waldrop said he's never coached a player more grounded than Ray. So the mention of what appears to be an excellent work ethic is just more old news to the coach's ears.
“You get a scholarship to the University of Alabama (and) they expect you to be ready when your number is called,” Waldrop said. “...He’s very intelligent, he’s very coachable. So for him to have early success and for him to garner that trust from those guys, no it doesn’t surprise me.”