Miami Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick didn't like the nickname "Saban's son" that he picked up at Alabama. But the former Crimson Tide All-American also used Alabama coach Nick Saban as a role model on his way to the NFL.

Fitzpatrick joined the Dolphins as the 11th player picked in last month's NFL Draft after three seasons at Alabama. The Crimson Tide played in the CFP national-championship game in each of those seasons and captured two titles.

Fitzpatrick was a unanimous All-American in 2017 after earning first-team recognition from The Associated Press and American Football Coaches Association in 2016. Last season, he joined Michigan's Charles Woodson and LSU's Patrick Peterson as the only players to win both the Thorpe Award, given to the nation's best defensive back, and the Bednarik Award, presented to the nation's best defensive player.

Fitzpatrick told Andrew Siciliano of NFL Network that he didn't like being tagged "Saban's son."

"We're just real similar. That's all it was," Fitzpatrick said of the sobriquet. "We just had similar mindsets the way we approached the game, the way we were off the field. We're just real similar in that aspect, so he took a liking to me. I didn't get in no trouble. I did what I had to do. I did my job on and off the field. I went to class, went to study hall and just did what I had to do, so he had a liking to me."

The similarity between him and his coach was intentional on Fitzpatrick's part, though.

"He taught me the importance of a lot of things, whether it be discipline, hard work, just staying focused," Fitzpatrick told the Players' Tribune about Saban. "I was instilled with all those things by my parents, but then he showed me why we had to do those things and why you had to be disciplined and why you had to make the right decisions when nobody's looking. He never really enforced it, but he just instilled it in me.

"I watched him and used him as an example on and off the field. I just try to model myself after him."

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.