Denzel Devall (born 1994) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

who played for the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

from 2012–2015. In July 2016, he started serving as a personnel assistant on the

Alabama Crimson Tide football The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama (variously Alabama, UA, or Bama) in the sport of American football. The team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Asso ...

coaching staff. In January and February 2017, he was promoted first to assistant strength and conditioning coach and then promoted again to director of player development.

High school career

A native of

Bastrop, Louisiana Bastrop is a city in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. It is the parish seat of Morehouse Parish. The population was 11,365 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 1,623 from the 12,988 tabulation of 2000. The population of Bastrop is 73 percent African ...

, Devall attended Bastrop High School, where he played on the football team. He finished his junior season with 108 tackles, five sacks, three fumbles caused, two fumbles recovered, and one interception. Bastrop finished the season with an 11–2 record, losing 26–20 in a hard-fought four-overtime game to Anthony Johnson's O. Perry Walker team in the Class 4A semifinals. In his senior year, Devall was credited with 73 tackles, including 53 solo stops, two sacks, three pass breakups, one fumble forced and one fumble recovery. Bastrop fell short of the playoffs, with a 6–4 season record. Nonetheless, Devall was a 2011 Louisiana Sports Writers Association 4A All-State selection. Considered a four-star recruit by Rivals.com, Devall was listed as the No. 5 inside linebacker in his class. He chose Alabama over offers from

Louisiana State Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

, Oklahoma,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

, and

Texas Christian Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Discip ...

College career

Contributing as a

true freshman Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

, Devall saw action in all 14 games at the "Jack" linebacker position, and totaled 18 tackles, with two sacks, three tackles for loss and three quarterback hurries en route to being named to ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' Freshman All-America Team. His biggest game came on October 27, against

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

, when he recorded two tackles for loss (one sack) and received Defensive Player of the Week honors from the Alabama coaching staff. Devall drew comparisons to former Alabama outside linebacker

Courtney Upshaw Courtney Tremaine Upshaw (born December 13, 1989) is a former American football defensive end. He was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He played college football at Alabama. High school career Upshaw a ...

. In his sophomore year, Devall took on a bigger role in Alabama's defense. He played in thirteen games, recording 30 tackles (including 14 solo), and five tackles for a loss of yardage. He also tied Adrian Hubbard for second-most quarterback sacks on the team with three, behind A'Shawn Robinson's 5.5 sacks. In a 52–0 shutout against

, Devall was credited with three tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry.

References

External links

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Alabama Crimson Tide bio
1994 births Living people People from Bastrop, Louisiana American football linebackers Alabama Crimson Tide football players {{Linebacker-1990s-stub