Jordan Battle’s mom was in charge of the food spread for Nick Saban’s visit to the family’s home last December.

Battle’s dad was thinking she’d go with something small, maybe a combination of a chicken platter and some dessert.

He was wrong.

In addition to wings, meatballs, Cuban sandwiches and assorted cheeses, there was also a dessert tray that included something Saban was particularly impressed with — chocolate chip cookies.

“He grabbed one of the cookies, bit into it and was like, ‘Oh man, this is good. I might have to stay and have some more of these,’” recalled Battle’s father, Fred.

If Urban Meyer hadn’t retired, Alabama may not have even had a chance to sign this promising young safety who is already a factor in the Crimson Tide secondary as a true freshman.

Battle had been committed to Ohio State since June and was planning on following through on that commitment — until Meyer announced his retirement in early December.

That same night, Saban and two Alabama assistants were in Florida for that in-home visit.

Two weeks later, Battle decommitted from Ohio State and signed with the Tide.

“If Urban Meyer stays and doesn’t have any issues and doesn’t have any problems, Jordan probably would have gone to Ohio State,” Battle’s dad said. “We didn’t want to play the game of committing, decommitting, committing, decommitting. But then all the turmoil started with Urban. And once he decided to step down and Ryan Day came for a home visit, Jordan was like, ‘Dad, I feel in my gut that it’s just not going to be the same program as if Urban Meyer was there.’”

It’s worked out well for Alabama.

Battle — the second-best safety and 43rd-best overall player in this year’s recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite rankings — began impressing with his playmaking ability and work ethic shortly after arriving in Tuscaloosa this summer and has now firmly established himself as one of the Tide’s top young players.

“Jordan Battle is a really good freshman who seems to be able to handle and manage the week-to-week preparations that’s necessary to be able to play in the secondary and not make a lot of mistakes,” Saban said. “I think the guy’s got potential to really help our team this year.”

Helping with the transition is that Battle played in an Alabama-like defense at St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the nation’s top high school programs.

One of Saban’s top players from his time with the Miami Dolphins is an assistant coach there, six-time Pro Bowl defensive end/outside linebacker Jason Taylor. According to Taylor, a lot of what St. Thomas Aquinas does on defense is “based on what we did when I played for the Dolphins under Coach Saban.”

That’s helped Battle with the acclimation to Alabama. So has the work he’s put in behind the scenes.

There aren’t many young players who will stay at the football complex after finishing with their daily responsibilities and try to track down coaches in order to ask questions and watch extra film.

Battle was doing that right away, something that made an impression with the staff this summer to go along with the plays and interceptions Battle was producing during 7-on-7 passing sessions and then later during fall camp and the Tide’s preseason scrimmages.

“Jordan, to his credit, I’ve never been around a kid that works harder,” Taylor said. “There’s maybe one kid that works similarly as hard and that’s (former top-60 recruit) Asante Samuel over at Florida State. I’m talking about you need to kick Jordan off the field. It’s ridiculous. We would literally have to kick him off the field. That’s a big credit to him. One of the questions from Coach Saban was, ‘How is he with his football intellect?’ And I said, ‘Coach, the kid can do it. You give him the playbook and he’ll absorb it and he’ll be in it until he learns it.’”

One Alabama coach told people from St. Thomas Aquinas that Battle’s playmaking ability and skill set reminds him of former Tide All-American safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix.

Taylor compared the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Battle to one of his old Dolphins teammates, two-time Pro Bowl safety Reshad Jones.

“I think he’s got some things that remind me of Reshad Jones with his range and physicality,” Taylor said.

While there will be some growing pains and while Battle was in coverage for an early South Carolina touchdown last Saturday, people around the Alabama program continue to rave about him.

Battle had a late interception during the Tide’s season-opening win over Duke, started in game two vs. New Mexico State, was Alabama’s sixth defensive back against South Carolina and had an early third down sack of quarterback Ryan Hilinski.

“He’ll be a team captain in Tuscaloosa,” Taylor said. “And one day soon — I don’t if it’ll be three years, four years or whatnot — I guess I can’t take him on my fantasy team with him being a defender, but I fully anticipate watching him on Sundays.”

Saban can thank Urban Meyer.

Ohio State coaches had envisioned Battle playing cornerback for the Buckeyes and had told him that they thought he could be a Marshon Lattimore-like player at that position for them.

Instead, Battle is at Alabama.

And Saban seems to be enjoying his play even more than he enjoyed those chocolate chip cookies back in December.

“I love Jordan Battle,” Saban said recently. “...We're excited about him being in the program, and we're excited about his performance.”

Matt Zenitz is an Alabama and Auburn reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.