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 four 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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He’s remembered for his lowest moment. A mistake. A glimpse of the full picture.

He lives on in memories. His smile. His quick first step on an inside pass rush. His determination. All of it was Jeremy Elder.

Nick Saban’s first Alabama class is known for laying the foundation. Before it could bear the weight of a dynasty, Elder was dismissed from Tuscaloosa. He held up two students with a B.B. gun in 2008, sending him on a personal journey of redemption that was ultimately cut far too short.

Not all recruiting stories have happy endings.

For Elder, with support from family, friends, and unknowingly, Alabama coaches, he never gave up chasing the dream that started in middle school.

“I still follow Nick Saban,” Elder’s other brother Jason Hall told AL.com. “He gave my brother a chance. Sometimes you miss that opportunity, but it was still an opportunity even though it didn’t go as planned.

“I see them boys run onto the field and like damn, my brother did that. I showed my youngest son because he loves football.”

Growing up, Elder avoided football games in the backyard or the street, Hall said. He wasn’t interested until, like hundreds of kids each fall, a coach saw a sixth grader’s growing frame and asked Elder a simple question.

“Why don’t you try it?”

At North Clayton (Ga.) Middle, Elder tried and was good at it. He displaced offensive linemen and terrorized quarterbacks. He befriended teammate Morgan Burnett, an eventual NFL veteran and Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers. He made his mother, Ursula Hall, happy while maintaining As and Bs in class.

Ursula Hall printed T-shirts and handed them out to friends before games. A single mother of three, she had moved her kids from apartment to apartment and house to house during Elder’s youth. She worked 14-hour days and eventually settled in Clayton County once Elder hit the field. She found a job working security at a hotel near the Atlanta airport.

Elder became a three-star prospect and welcomed Division-I offers, including interest from Arkansas. Then, sometime in January 2007, Elder received a letter from Saban who called him with an offer soon after. Jason Hall, who was in the Navy then, still remembers his brother calling him with the news of his commitment to the Crimson Tide.

Elder redshirted his freshman season. Fellow first-year defender Rolando McClain recalled Elder as a jokester with a pair of fast feet that shone in one-on-one drills.

Like his brother, McClain was shocked when news broke that Elder had robbed two students of $26 in a prank gone wrong.

“My brother never, never got in trouble (before),” Jason Hall said. “I was the one that was getting whoopings. … I was confused. ‘No, not my brother, not Jeremy.’ Jeremy ain’t like that.’

“After it happened, he never said anything about it. He just said he did it.”

Elder later apologized to the victims. Defensive coordinator Kevin Steele handled UA’s team legal issues at the time and said it was an “immature, bad decision,” but Elder wasn’t a “bad guy.” Elder was let go from the team. Saban told reporters in February 2008 that players had to recognize the pressures of the national spotlight; Saban said Tide student-athletes missed 30 games his first season due to suspensions.

Elder blamed himself. He believed Saban could get him to the NFL and now he was enrolling at Georgia Military College for a second chance. During his first game fall of 2008, Elder dislocated his ankle and fractured his right fibula.

He searched for reason on the phone with his brother. “Why? When it gonna stop?”

Back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama coaches talked with Elder’s former teammates to see if they were checking on him. When Elder started rehab and contemplated his next steps, then-Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart called an old friend.

Unbeknown to Elder’s family, Smart contacted Jeremy Rowell, a former colleague and then Troy’s defensive coordinator. They talked through Elder’s ability and his dismissal. Rowell called Elder’s coaches at North Clayton and Georgia Military and kept hearing positive stories. The Trojans offered Elder a scholarship — and redemption. He found symbolism in returning to the state he was cast out from.

“Man, that was the best day of his life to go back to Alabama and on top of that graduate from a Division I school and get seen from an NFL scout,” Jason Hall said.

Elder wouldn’t waste it. He took a loose piece of paper and scribbled ‘GOALS’ on top and ‘P.U.S.H’ at the bottom. The latter stood for Pray Until Something Happens. Between the lines were Elder’s daily tasks: Pray every day, read Scripture, 100 pushups “or more,” cardio, stretch, eat right, stay humble, never lose faith, stay hungry, cut out sweets.

Rowell remembered Elder’s deep voice and calm demeanor in the locker room. After always having a joke ready at Alabama, Elder had mellowed and didn’t talk much. Elder was a rotational player, having the size and strength at 6-foot-3, 289 pounds but lacking the athleticism he had out of high school because of the ankle injury.

From 2018-19, there were more than 1 million high school football players, according to an NCAA Study. Of those, 7.3% make it to a college program. Just over 16 thousand became draft eligible and 1.6% of them were selected. Elder tried to be one of them.

He graduated in 2012 and still held onto his pro football future. Even if it wasn’t an NFL roster spot, he waited for a call to try out for a practice squad or the Arena Football League. He moved in with his mom, ran 2 miles a day and traveled to Georgia Tech’s campus to train with Burnett.

“It wasn’t a thing of having talent. He just couldn’t move anymore like he wanted to,” Rowell said. ” … It’s a tough deal for guys. They know what they’ve been able to do and they try their best to get back to that. Sometimes the body won’t let that happen.”

In the summer of 2013, Jason Hall talked with a scout and passed along Elder’s number. But on the morning of July 24, Ursula Hall walked downstairs to an empty kitchen.

Elder usually was awake before her. She knocked on his bedroom door. It didn’t budge. She stuck her hand underneath the frame and felt her son’s body.

She called 9-1-1 first, then she called Jason. Elder died of a heart attack at 25 years old.

Jason Hall, living in South Carolina, didn’t believe it. He told her Elder must’ve been messing around with her, accepting the truth when he heard paramedics in the background. He booked the next flight home.

“My mom said Jeremy had a heart murmur,” Hall said. “It wasn’t serious. He had plenty of physicals and nobody felt it was serious enough. … They still didn’t put two and two together. Nobody did. You’d think Jeremy was healthy as an ox because that’s what he did.”

Saban sent flowers to the funeral. The grieving process is ongoing. Ursula Hall declined to comment on this story, directing questions to Jason. She still can’t talk about it. It’s still hard for Jason Hall to process it. Tears well in their eyes when they hear the wrong song or see a McDonald’s and Burger King too close together — a younger Elder used to love getting “half and half” mixing meals from each.

Jason Hall lets himself feel the emotion in moments, believing he needs to be strong for his mother and sister, Mercedes Hall, and his sons. His youngest, Javion Hall, reminds him of Elder. He’s a rising sophomore cornerback at Goose Creek (South Carolina) High and shares his uncle’s wit and penchant for proving others wrong.

Elder wore No. 54. Javion wears ‘27′ in his honor.

“I’m happy because my son wants to pursue his dream, he wants to play football, he sees himself going to the NFL. Just like my brother did, he has that drive. Just to see him go out there and try his best every day and go to camps and do good and not give up, it makes me happy, man.

“I thank my brother for that because it has to be his spirit somewhere. I feel his spirit with my youngest son as far as pushing him to it, what he needs to be.”

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