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In roundabout way, Alvin Kamara credits his success to departing Alabama: ‘I learned a lot from leaving’

Michael Wayne Bratton

By Michael Wayne Bratton

Published:

By the time he arrived at Alabama, Alvin Kamara was not ready for everything that life would throw at him.

For the first time in his playing career, the touted running back not only had to deal with an injury that would sideline him from the field but he no longer was the alpha of his football team. In fact, he wasn’t even close to the alpha of the Alabama running back room.

To put that into perspective, Kamara made the decision to sign with Alabama at the same time as top 10 running backs Derrick Henry, Altee Tenpenny and Tyren Jones — not to mention T.J. Yeldon, Kenyan Drake and Dee Hart were already on the roster.

While we will never know how his football career would have panned out had he stuck it out and played his entire college career at Alabama, Kamara believes he needed to grow up and learn about life in order to find success.

That reality struck him after he left Alabama following his only season in Tuscaloosa.

In a recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay, Kamara was asked if he believes his career would have turned out as well as it did had he stuck it out at Alabama.

“I don’t think so because I learned a lot from leaving Alabama,” Kamara answered. “I’m not even talking about football-wise. I learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot about how to interact with other people and I learned a lot about how to deal with certain situations. I just learned a lot about life.

“When I left Alabama, I went home. Nobody really knows, I was about to be done with football. I was like, I’m about to go back home and just do whatever. Like, I’m just going to kick it.”

After leaving Alabama, Kamara was soon arrested in his home state of Georgia after racking up some fines and driving without a valid ID. It was at that point he realized he needed to get serious if he was going to have a future on the football field.

Kamara said he called Clemson and they refused to take him following his arrest. They then told him to go to the junior college route.

That’s what Kamara did and the rest is history.

Michael Wayne Bratton

A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com

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