PHOENIX, Ariz. — Outside of the state of Alabama, college football fans know Marlon Humphrey as the guy who caught the onside kick against Clemson.

It was the signature play of this year’s national championship game, the one that caused coach Nick Saban to crack a smile on the sideline.

Alabama likes to kick off from the left hashmark. To set up a return for Artavis Scott, Clemson was shifting its blockers too far to one side. From the Tide’s vantage point, the right-most Tigers player was planting his feet on the opposite hashmark.

So, after tying the game 24-24, Adam Griffith pooched the ball to his right and Humphrey ran under it, making an over-the-shoulder basket catch that resembled Willie Mays without the degree of difficulty.

Inside the state of Alabama, Humphrey’s No. 26 jersey is all too familiar. His father, Bobby Humphrey, wore it as he set Alabama’s school record for career rushing yards and became a first-round pick in the 1989 NFL draft.

Marlon Humphrey wore it at Hoover High School, leading the football team to a 30-0 record his junior and senior seasons with a pair of 6A state championships.

As if his gene pool wasn’t strong enough with his father — his mother Barbara (May) Humphrey still holds UAB’s school record in the 400-meter dash.

By the way, Marlon Humphrey runs track as well. For the University of Alabama. He won the 110 meter hurdles (13.67) and the 400 meter hurdles (50.75) at the 2013 World Youth Track & Field Championships, then anchored the Tide’s 4×400-meter relay team as a true freshman.

Birmingham track coaches were alluding to Humphrey as having Olympic potential before he ever left high school.

“He’d have to keep improving (to have a shot at the Olympics),” Hoover cross country and track coach Devon Hind said in ’13, according to AL.com.

“College is a whole new level. So then are the Olympics beyond that. But he’s on par with those who have done it before. There’s no guarantee on that but we can only assume he would continue to improve. But right now you can say that he’s on par with the elite hurdlers that there have ever been in high school.”

(If you want to get an idea of just how fast Humphrey is, watch his anchor leg during a 4×400-meter state title race at Hoover High School. He gets the baton just after the 4:10 mark of the video.)

Considering that he started all 15 games at cornerback for the best defense in the nation — as a redshirt freshman — there’s also a good chance he could play in the NFL like his dad.

There are several SEC athletes who participate in two sports. Football and track is a fairly common pairing. But the NFL and the Olympics? That’s a rare feat.

Jeff Demps, a former Florida Gators running back, did it most recently, winning a silver medal in a 2012 relay (though it was later stripped due to a failed drug test by teammate Tyson Gay).

“Last year I kind of just went how it came to me. I tried to focus on football when it was football season, and then I went on to track,” Humphrey said.

A hamstring injury cost Humphrey a chunk of his first track season. Listed at 6-foot-1 and 192 pounds, he also is noticeably bulkier than he was as a high school senior. He ran the 400-meter hurdles, arguably his best high school event, just once last outdoor track season.

Humphrey made a decision with new hurdles coach Dion Miller to focus on the 110-meter hurdles this coming spring.

“I would love to be in the Olympics,” he said. “I know it would be tough. But if that was the way my path went when I start back training this year, I would love to try.”

Alabama competed in its first meet this weekend, just days after Humphrey helped the Tide win a national championship in football. While it may seem like a tough transition after 15 hard-scrabble football games, Humphrey credits Saban and director of strength and conditioning Scott Cochran for devising a training plan that enables him.

“(Cochran) knows when I can lift heavy early in the season and when I should kind of back off to save my legs for track,” Humphrey said. “I’m really thankful to him and Coach Saban, the schedule they’ve had me on. I’ve done some football stuff and all the track stuff. They know I won’t be able to do both and be able to be fresh, so they’ve done a really good job.”

He’s just starting to blossom as a college athlete, with three years of eligibility left in each sport. Given that 2016 is an Olympic year and that Humphrey still is adjusting to college hurdles, it seems unlikely that he’ll make it to Rio. But he’ll be turning 24 years old in the summer of 2020.

Will he be gunning for an Olympic team or preparing for an NFL training camp? Surely not both, right?

As a cornerback, Humphrey epitomizes Alabama’s shift in the last two seasons. The Tide used to club opposing offenses with linebacker/safeties like Mark Barron and Landon Collins. Now the safeties are former cornerbacks like Eddie Jackson and the corners are track stars.

“When you’ve got guys like ArDarius Stewart and Calvin Ridley, you’ve got to have guys that can run,” Humphrey said in Phoenix prior to the national title game.

“That’s one of the things Coach Saban always talks about. Your corners have to be fast and pretty long, good with technique. A lot of our guys went from corner to safety or safety to corner because of the versatility of a lot of our guys. We’ve got the guys to do that.”

Or, you know, cornerback in the national championship football game to anchoring the 4×400-meter relay at the NCAA track and field championships. Alabama has a guy to do that as well.