Making it to Alabama is difficult for any college football player is a difficult task and cracking into the starting lineup as a consistent impact-maker is even harder.

But that isn’t off the menu for freshman defensive lineman Jaheim Oatis, who was listed as a co-starter alongside four-year starting nose guard DJ Dale. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was asked about Oatis in a recent press conference and gave a simplistic answer that checked all the boxes.

“Well, look, the first thing about being a good defensive lineman at whatever position you play is you need to be hard to block,” Saban said Monday in a report from AL.com. “So if I was gonna say something simple without getting too technical, I would say he was hard to block.”

While Oatis is the heaviest player on the roster and still needs to grow in some areas, there’s no doubt that he has caught attention and continues to impress. Outside linebacker Will Anderson, who is projected to possibly be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, has had nothing but good things to say about him.

“I’m very happy for him,” Anderson said Monday in a report from . “He’s one of the freshman who came in, worked hard and didn’t complain. He did exactly what he said he was going to do. I remember I was on Twitter and he was (saying) he was going to come in and lose weight and compete for a spot.”

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out as Alabama opens the season against Utah State on Sept. 3.