In the lore of Nick Saban, where messy things like facts and details obscure legend, his recruiting acumen has never been questioned. As author Monte Burke wrote in his 2016 biography of Saban, the coach joked with his new boss Mal Moore that Saban wasn’t the best coach in the country, but he was a “helluva recruiter.” His initial steps foreshadowed a dynasty that’s just starting to be fully understood in the months following his retirement. Before Julio Jones, Dont’a Hightower and Mark Ingram, these are the stories of the players who initially bought in.

This is part one of AL.com’s ‘Saban’s 1st Class: Where are they now?’ series, a reflection of the group Saban assembled during his first weeks on the job in Jan. 2007.

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Then-Alabama head coach Nick Saban walked into the Mercedes-Benz dealership he just bought, scanned the floor and stopped one employee to ask him what the hell he was doing there. It was 2014 and he saw one of the first players who shared Saban’s vision: Kerry Murphy.

In the showroom, the two shared a moment and reflected on how far they had come. After the three national titles (at the time) Saban had won; after seven years passed from Murphy initially accepting UA’s offer in 2007; after the grading scandal and family crisis that kept Murphy away from Tuscaloosa; after the injuries that cut his career short, Murphy worked at the dealership. In Hoover, Murphy surprised Saban with his presence nearly two decades after Saban did the same on his first day on the recruiting trail.

Following Saban’s introductory news conference, coaches watched film of Murphy and identified him as a target. Saban and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele booked a day-long circuit to visit Birmingham prospects. The main event was in Murphy’s living room.

Murphy’s first impression? “Damn, he short.”

Within a few moments, however, Saban would separate himself from the other coaches who pitched Murphy on potential futures. Murphy, one of the top undecided players in the state, had grown accustomed to coaches praising his strength and quickness as an interior defensive lineman. Coaches promised starting roles and foretold his glory. Saban gave him the “raw” unfiltered truth.

Yes, Murphy was talented. But he hadn’t earned anything with Saban, and the coach let Murphy know what the expectations would be in his version of UA football. His mom, Rosetta Murphy, nodded along internally. She was an Auburn fan and birthed Murphy in Montgomery. But when Saban and Steele departed, she and her husband agreed. Murphy was going to Alabama.

“She just fell in love with the staff,” Murphy told AL.com. “I did too.

“I never met the man before. … Saying the things you don’t want to hear as a kid at that age, I did gain a lot of respect for him. He was straight up with me.”

Murphy had won a state title with Hoover and enjoyed the attention of being an elite recruit. He and his teammates like Josh Chapman (still with the university on Kalen DeBoer’s support staff) and Patrick Crump grew up on the memory of what Tide dominance looked like. Steele worked to convince them what he already knew; coming from the Miami Dolphins and a national champion at LSU, Saban could establish greatness in Tuscaloosa. Saban would be tough but look after his players.

It would be almost two years for Murphy to see to it after committing in mid-January. After taking over for Mike Shula, Saban’s transitionary class featured stars like Rolando McClain and hidden gems like William Vlachos. Murphy, his first commit, started as the former on a winding road to acceptance.

Murphy wasn’t academically eligible to join his teammates and friends from around the state that summer — Murphy and others were been accused of receiving preferential treatment at Hoover. Instead, he was sent to Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy, a boarding school that housed around 300 students with dozens involved in post-graduate football and basketball programs. Players lived in barracks on the third floor of a building in southern Virginia without air conditioning.

Murphy’s former English teacher at Hargrave, Debra Pugh, said the school was a wake-up call for athletes who either coasted through their senior years or were taken advantage of by coaches just looking to win on Friday nights. She remembered Murphy, like many others, didn’t love the early morning stands at attention and the rigor of training, but he kept a good spirit in her class and would break out a backflip on the athletic field outside her window every so often.

One day, a player awaiting a scholarship offer grew frustrated and complained aloud to classmates. Another told him to shut it and fists flew in Pugh’s class. She rushed outside for help but within minutes, the nearly 6-foot-4 Murphy found her in the hallway.

“It’s OK, Miss Pugh, you can come in, I took care of it. I’ve got them in separate corners. They’ll shake hands when they leave the room, ma’am.” All the while, Murphy knew his time was coming as Tide coaches checked in almost daily.

“There was a lot of investment put into that,” Steele said. “Such a good young man with a bright future and it was pretty obvious.”

Murphy then briefly attended the Cahaba School in Hoover and soon after got the call notifying him he could finally enroll in early 2009. During his first day in the team facility, director of player development Jeremy Pruitt put Murphy on a stair climber for 45 minutes, a crash course in the ‘Bama standard. Before Murphy could get too deep into the playbook, however, tragedy hit home. Murphy was pulled out of a team practice when his brother, Terrory Murphy, became a homicide victim.

Murphy left for home, burying Terrory and consoling his family. Coaches continued to check in, and after about two weeks, Saban called and encouraged him to return to campus. The team needed him and Saban thought they could help him grieve. When Murphy got to UA, he was connected with Dr. Ginger Gilmore, director of behavioral medicine, and Gary Cramer, a life coach.

Alabama won its first of six national titles under Saban the following January, knocking off Texas in the BCS Championship. But a new reality sunk in for Murphy; his body was deteriorating. After getting his knees scoped in high school, Murphy continued to rack up surgeries. He needed constant treatment to practice, as Steele put it, “a lot of extra work and then a lot of pain.”

During Alabama’s trouncing of Tennessee on Oct. 23, 2010, Murphy had to have fluid drained from his knees inside Neyland Stadium. Teammates jokingly called Murphy “Lieutenant Dan,” a nod to Gary Sinise’s performance in “Forrest Gump.” Murphy laughs about it now, but it bothered him to know his assignment and be too slow to get there.

Murphy anticipated Saban calling him into his office that offseason. After 18 games and 12 total tackles, Murphy needed to medically retire.

There’s something Murphy wants to set the record straight on: the support from Alabama didn’t waver.

“They kept it real with me when my brother got murdered, when I blew my knees out. They never turned their backs on me. They were there for me mentally the entire time. They easily could’ve, like some schools have with guys that I’ve known. They could’ve easily done that, but they didn’t,” Murphy said. ” … If I didn’t have all those folks around, I probably wouldn’t be here, especially the state I was in. They rallied around me.”

It helped that teammates revered him. Rolando McClain, one of the building blocks of the dynasty who considers himself a “connoisseur of good football” deemed Murphy one of the best talents in state history.

Murphy stayed in school and graduated in 2013 with his bachelor’s degree. Along with more sessions with Gilmore and Cramer, Murphy found joy in watching the Tide add to the trophy case with two more titles. Murphy remained around the program, celebrating with teammates and helping out the next generation in the weight room on weekends.

In early 2014, Murphy had a job lined up at the dealership in Hoover; he’s been there for a decade. He still rises each morning with sore knees, but texts and hangouts with Chapman or Dont’a Hightower, friends from his playing days, let Murphy remember his career fondly.

“You do have to find some kind of common ground with yourself to be able to find your identity and realize, ‘Hey, this thing is really over,’ I think I did that pretty quickly,” Murphy said. ” … You’ve known these guys since we were all kids. We’re all becoming dads and husbands and getting older. It’s not the fairytale ending for everyone, but you can still be satisfied and appreciate it and won’t change it for anything.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].