Alabama has one of the deepest, most talented wide receiver rooms in the country heading into 2025. Head coach Kalen DeBoer and WR coach JaMarcus Shephard successfully flipped the room in the winter Transfer Portal window.
Last year, Alabama struggled to find a No. 3 WR to step up behind Ryan Williams and Germie Bernard. That won't be an issue in 2025. The problem this year will be keeping the Tide's deep and talented WR room happy. There's only one football, and too many mouths to feed.
Alabama's starting trio seems pretty set. Williams and Bernard are back, and Miami (FL) transfer Isaiah Horton has made waves since arriving in Tuscaloosa. That's an impressive trio, but Alabama's depth behind the starters is what makes the room special.
Redshirt freshman Rico Scott is poised to be WR4, carving out a role in his second season with the Crimson Tide. He made his first career start in the ReliaQuest Bowl, flashing his game-breaking speed on a 28-yard end-around.
But it's not his athletic profile that has helped him stand out. Instead, it was his commitment in the spring to doing the dirty work that stood out for OC Ryan Grubb, and something that became contagious for the entire WR room.
Ryan Grubb praised Rico Scott for his willingness to block
Part of what made the "Ryde Outs" so special in Tuscaloosa was that, despite the fact that the room was filled with immensely talented players like DeVonta Smith, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and Jaylen Waddle, not a single one of them was a prima donna. They cheered for each other, had no problem ceding the spotlight for a teammate, and every single one of them blocked their behinds off when they didn't get the football.
That's exactly the attitude that the 2025 WR room has, and Grubb credited Scott for that.
“When I was here in the spring and we were going through practice, I felt like we had to find a guy to pick and point out, like that’s what it should look like," Grubb said about preaching blocking. "He (Scott) was the guy that’s standing out."
Scott's willingness to do the dirty work set the example that Grubb and Shephard wanted. They drilled it into the group, and now it has become a belief system within the room.
“Now, if there’s a guy not doing it right, tight hands, good base, things like that, he’s the guy that stands out," Grubb said. "So the room has completely flipped, I think it’s a belief system in the room and we’ve certainly captured that.”
Being a willing, downfield blocker has long been a core principle for Alabama football. It was an example set by Julio Jones during his time in Tuscaloosa. To this day, there hasn't been a more talented football player to step onto campus at the Capstone than Jones. If he was willing to block, there's no excuse for anyone else.
Scott has done the little things to earn his keep in the Alabama WR room. It allowed him to stand out apart from others with similar athletic profiles, and it's the impetus for why he's going to be a big part of the Crimson Tide's offense.