TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Unlike his new teammates at Alabama, Keon Sabb was celebrating on the night of Jan. 1 in Pasadena, California. The second-year safety had helped Michigan beat the Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl semifinal to advance to the national title game.
One week later in Houston, Sabb and the Wolverines defeated Washington to claim their first championship since 1997. Now at Alabama, Sabb not only has bragging rights over the players on last year’s team but those who came over from Washington with Kalen DeBoer .
Seven months after the College Football Playoff, Sabb, DeBoer and his Alabama teammates have fun with it as they collectively prepare for the 2024 campaign – this time as one.
“We go back and forth about it, but it always ends with a respectful thing,” Sabb said. “It’s definitely fun coming in how I did, but I think Coach DeBoer, we always have our little jokes around, and the guys on the team, it’s almost every day. So I think it’s fun.”
Sabb is entering his third year of college and is coming off his most involved season yet, where he was on the field for 14 of Michigan’s 15 games and made five starts. The 6-foot-1, 206-pound safety recorded 28 tackles, five pass breakups and two interceptions last year and would have been a big part of the Wolverines’ defense, had he stayed in Ann Arbor.