Who Influenced Alabama DL Tim Keenan III to Become a Leader?

Keenan redshirted his freshman season in 2021 and only saw the field in two games as a sophomore. In today's college athletics, many players would transfer due to the lack of playing time, but the former in-state recruit stayed the course and earned a starting job in 2023 and emerged himself as one of the best defensive linemen in the SEC last season.

Keenan would've been an intriguing prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft but he decided to stay at Alabama for another year with hopes of leaving Tuscaloosa with a National Championship. He acquired enough leadership traits over the years to be one of the Tide's representatives at SEC Media Days in Atlanta this week, and he credited a handful of former Alabama standouts for shaping him into the young man he is today.

"Being from Birmingham, you've got Quinnen Williams, Daron Payne, Marcell Dareus and DJ Dale," Keenan said. "I was there with DJ Dale. I got to see some recruiting with Quinnen a little bit, and I saw from him that you don't always start right away. You've got to work your way, grind a little bit, get it out of the mud.

"But having that faith in god, being in arm's reach working out with those guys and seeing that it's possible, the guys showing me it's possible is definitely a blessing."

Keenan played with DJ Dale for two years but he went to the NFL following the 2022 season. In other words, Keenan has built himself up over the last two years, and while it's been on full display on Saturdays, it has shown a lot in the locker room. Being selected as one of the team's three representatives alongside head coach Kalen DeBoer at SEC Media Days "means a lot to him."

"I'm so Roll Tide," Keenan said. "Just being from the state, watching this ever since I was knee-high running around dreaming one day I was going to get to play on that field and I get to live out the dream. It's an honor and blessing to represent [Alabama] here as a leader."

So, how does Keenan want to be remembered at Alabama when all is said and done?

"I want to leave behind that I was a God-fearing young man who stepped on this campus that at first seemed it wasn't going to work out, but he put his faith in God and his dreams ended up coming true," Keenan said. "It's going to be a Cinderella story at the end of the day, a happy ending.

"That's the legacy I want to leave––a great, dominant football player but also just a great man off the field for the stuff I did in the community and how I impacted people."

Quinnen Williams, Daron Payne, Marcell Dareus and DJ Dale all won the National Championship while at Alabama. Can Keenan follow in his mentors' footsteps?