Alabama freshman Agiye Hall stole the show with his acrobatic catches during April’s spring game and appeared on his way to early contributions in Tuscaloosa.
But after catching one pass for 10 yards in the Tide’s season opener, the former top-50 prospect has not recorded any stats in the six games since.
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Hall is listed as having participated in Alabama’s 49-9 win Saturday over Mississippi State, although Alabama opted to play other young wide receivers late in the lopsided game. Hall tweeted Saturday night, “Yea nah , calling it quits” before deleting the tweet.
Nick Saban was asked Monday about Hall’s apparent frustration with his playing time.
“It still comes down to players creating value for themselves by what they do,” he said. “I’ve said this before that there’s players that have talent, but they have to learn how to use it. And they have to use it in an effective way, in a way they practice.
“It’s up to the player to impress the coaches that they can be trusted to go into game and do what they’re supposed to do. So when players get frustrated, you know, they sometimes don’t respond the way they should in terms of their preparation and focusing on what they need to do to become a good player, because they’re so concerned about how much they’re playing.”
Hall was a four-star prospect from the Tampa area who began at Durant High School in 2017, transferred to Armwood High School for two seasons, spent three months enrolled at IMG Academy in early 2020 but then finished his high school career at Bloomingdale High School.
The most recent activity on Hall’s Twitter timeline is him retweeting another user’s call earlier this month for Alabama to play Hall along with freshmen Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold.
“If players are competitors, they probably will be frustrated that they’re not playing,” Saban continued Monday. “But it’s how do you respond to that? What do you do to respond to that in a positive way that’s going to help you improve your circumstances in the future?
“And the way to do that is do the right things and go out of practice and play well so that not only you, but your teammates and everybody in the organization can trust you to go do what you’re supposed to do.”
Saban was asked Sept. 22 about Hall, saying he wanted to see the freshman become part of the offense but dependability on and off the field is important. Saban added that Hall was getting “better and better” and “hopefully, he’ll be contributing sometime soon.”
Hall is one of four freshmen receivers on the Tide. JoJo Earle has seen the most playing time as a punt returner and as a wide receiver, while Ja’Corey Brooks has earned praise from Saban for his contributions on special teams. Brooks, who earned snaps in the final minutes of Saturday’s game on offense, was named a special teams player of the week by coaches. Alabama’s other freshman receiver, Christian Leary, has warmed up with running backs the past two weeks after multiple injuries at that position.
Saban was also asked Monday about sophomore wide receiver Javon Baker, who caught five passes over the first four games of the season but has not been in uniform the past three.
“It’s the same thing. Players do what they’re supposed to do. They travel, they play, they contribute to the team and that’s every player’s choice,” Saban said. “Every player has a choice to do the things that they need to do to contribute to the team and everybody’s got to buy in. So, players that do that, travel. Players that have issues with that, they’re not really doing what they should do.
“I mean, that’s our job as a coach to make sure that people were doing the right things and if they’re not doing the right things there’s consequences for that. There’s consequences for that life. There’s consequences in that when you’re in competitive sports.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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