Tide Coaches Pick Players Of Week

Alabama honors players of the week on offense, defense, and special teams. Following the Crimson Tide's 48-3 win over San Jose State Saturday, the Bama coaching staff graded the performances and selected five players for recognition.

Alabama Coach Nick Saban announced Monday that Julio Jones, Trent Richardson, Mark Barron, Cade Foster and Chris Jordan were the players of the week from the opener.

Junior wide receiver Julio Jones and sophomore tailback Trent Richardson were recognized as the top performers on offense.

Jones caught six passes for 93 yards including a 29-yard touchdown, which was a one-handed grab that ended up on all of the college football highlight shows. Jones, who played just one series in the second half, also had one rush for 13 yards and served as the punt returner.

Richardson made his first career start at tailback for an injured Mark Ingram and totaled 146 all-purpose yards. The Pensacola native carried 10 times for 66 yards, caught three passes for 46 yards, and returned one kickoff for 34 yards in just one half of action.

Defensively, junior safety Mark Barron was the lone honoree. Barron totaled two tackles in the game but also directed an Alabama secondary that allowed just 86 passing yards and held San Jose State to 1-of-13 on third downs. The preseason All-America led the SEC last year with seven interceptions and is the only returning player on the Crimson Tide’s defense who started more than 50 percent of last year’s games.

Freshman kicker Cade Foster and junior linebacker Chris Jordan were listed by the coaching staff as the top performers on special teams.

Foster converted on both of his field goal tries (41 and 24 yards) and also hit both extra points he attempted. He handled kickoffs and recorded one touchback while holding San Jose State to an average start of the 24-yard line. Foster also had a tackle on kickoff coverage.

Jordan finished as the team’s second-leading tackler with six total stops. Two of Jordan’s tackles came on the kickoff coverage team.

"We had some outstanding performances," Saban said. "Julio (Jones) and Trent (Richardson) played great and Mark Barron on defense. Chris Jordan did a really good job on special teams, as did Cade Foster, not just in the four kicking attempts that he had, field goals or extra points, but also did a really good job kicking off and did a good job as a coverage guy on the kickoff."