The University of Alabama had five football players on the SEC’s All-Freshmen Team released Thursday: left guard Evan Neal, punter Ty Perine, defensive lineman Christian Barmore and linebackers Shane Lee and Christian Harris.
Neal, Lee and Harris were thrust into starting roles from the beginning of the season. Lee and Harris were put there after injuries to Dylan Moses and Joshua McMillon kept both of those veterans out of the 2019 season. Neal was a consistent fixture for the offensive line, never seeing his role change when the line shuffled after Deonte Brown’s four-game suspension.
Perine became a cult hero as a walk-on punter, fixing the punting woes that afflicted UA for the first half of the season. His 13 punts averaged 44.69 yards, while the 14 punts shared by Skyler DeLong and Will Reichard averaged a combined 34.43 yards per punt. All three of Alabama’s 50-yard punts were off the foot of Perine.
Barmore’s role grew as an interior pass rush specialist, and it was a productive one for him: despite not getting significant snaps in the role until roughly the midway point of the season, Barmore produced six tackles for a loss, two sacks, a pass breakup and four quarterback hurries. Barmore got experience outside of the pass rush role in the Western Carolina and Auburn games, when D.J. Dale missed both games and Phidarian Mathis missed the Western Carolina game.
