TUSCALOOSA — Alabama finally released its final football roster on Saturday, a list that includes 20 players who joined the team for practice on Wednesday.
Among those listed are several holdover walk-ons, including defensive back Trent Dean (who doubled as the scout-team quarterback in 2006), kicker Andrew Friedman and punter Heath Thomas. Also back with the squad is running back/kick returner Jonathan Lowe, who was expected to make an impact on special teams this season but missed fall camp due to academic troubles.
New to the team are a pair of prominent Division I transfers, one of which is linebacker Tucker Callahan, a Fairhope native who signed with Oregon out of high school but never played for the Ducks. Defensive tackle Juan Garnier, a well-traveled player most recently at Ohio State, has also joined the team.
Garnier, a 6-foot-4, 315-pound junior who is 25 years old, began his career as a walk-on at Auburn in 2002, then sat out a year before enrolling at Shelton State Community College in an attempt to eventually play at Alabama. The Massachusetts native later wound up at Ohio State, where he played the last two seasons.
While at Ohio State, Garnier met Todd Alles, now the director of football operations at Alabama. Garnier, who was awarded two extra years of eligibility by the NCAA due to extreme financial and physical hardship, was named 2006 college football walk-on of the year by CBSSportsline.com.
Alabama has also added two walk-on quarterbacks to its roster. True freshmen Patrick Bryant of Pensacola, Fla., and Robert Ezell of Athens have joined scholarship quarterbacks John Parker Wilson, Greg McElroy and Nick Fanuzzi, and walk-ons Ross Applegate and Thomas Darrah.
Alabama conducted its final pre-season practice on Saturday, working for more than two hours in the indoor facility due to rainy conditions. The Crimson Tide opens the season next Saturday at home against Western Carolina.
• ON THE LIST: Alabama center Antoine Caldwell has been named to the watch list for the Rimington Award, given to the top center in college football.
Caldwell, a junior from Montgomery, has started the last two years on the offensive line at Alabama, at left guard in 2005 and at center in 2006. He was a second-team All-Southeastern Conference performer last season.
Caldwell is one of eight SEC centers on the 54-player watch list, joining Auburn's Jason Bosley, Ole Miss' Corey Actis, Mississippi State's Royce Blackledge, LSU's Brett Helms, Arkansas' Jonathan Luigs, Tennessee's Josh McNeil and Florida's Drew Miller. West Virginia's Dan Mozes won the award in 2006.
The 2007 Rimington Award will be presented Jan. 12 in Lincoln, Neb.
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