There aren’t many players in college football who have spent over half a decade playing with the same program, but Kendall Randolph is one of few.
Randolph opted to return for his sixth season with the Crimson Tide utilizing his extra COVID year of eligibility with his mind on one goal.
Win the national championship.
“I feel like last year we could have went further and win the national championship,” Randolph said to the media on Tuesday. “That’s something that we’re gonna strive to do this year. Those are our goals.”
Throughout his career, Randolph has been a swiss army knife of sorts in Alabama’s blocking schemes. He’s worked at both offensive tackle and guard but Randolph has had the most playing time at tight end in the Crimson Tide’s jumbo packages.
This season, Randolph is getting a greater opportunity along the offensive line as he has worked with the first team offensive line through fall camp.
Although he was never a full-time player, Randolph has a wealth of experience working and understanding Alabama’s offensive system throughout his lengthy college career which he gets a few jabs for from his teammates.
Randolph shared that he is commonly referred to as the old man or the team grandpa by some of the younger players on the roster. But he takes no issue in the fun.
“So the granda jokes, that’s pretty funny, I do hear that sometimes,” Randolph said. “You know, I’m not offended by it because at the end of the day we’re all here grinding for the same reason and we all wanna keep pushing to make it to our highest level possible.”
The most jarring jokes Randolph hears are the ones where the year of birth is brought up as there are now several younger players born in the 2000s on the team.
“I think one time we talked about what year they were born and I was hearing some guys saying they were born in 2003 or 2002 and they say ‘Kendall what year were you born?’ and I just say 1998,” Randolph said. “They just made some comments about that, but they didn’t go too far.”
Randolph joined Alabama as a part of the historic 2017 class which included eight first-round NFL draft picks and produced a national championship in 2020. He is now the last member of that class still playing for Alabama but Randolph is proud of the accomplishments the group was able to make and shared he still keeps in touch with some today.
“Our 2017 class definitely was memorable,” Randolph said. “I’m definitely happy to be a part of that class and I still stay in contact with some of the guys and I’m glad they’re still able to do it at the next level. It’s been outstanding.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
