METAIRIE, La. -- Long before the NFL whiffed on Alvin Kamara, he was the one who got away from Alabama.

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Kamara's breakout rookie year with the New Orleans Saints never should have been this big of a surprise. He signed with the Crimson Tide in 2013 as one of the top-rated recruits in the country (No. 32 overall on ESPN's 150 list and No. 2 among all-purpose backs by Rivals.com). He probably should have left there as a national championship star.

But Kamara's freshman season was derailed by a minor knee injury and some disciplinary issues, which buried him on a depth chart that also included current NFL backs Derrick Henry, T.J. Yeldon and Kenyan Drake, among others.

So he decided to leave, spending a year at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas before transferring to Tennessee and winding up as a third-round draft pick to New Orleans.

Now the dynamic dual threat is on pace for more than 1,400 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns in a timeshare with another former Alabama star, Mark Ingram.

Alvin Kamara signed with Alabama in 2013 as one of the top-rated recruits in the country. AP Photo/Butch Dill

"I just had a gut feeling, like, 'This isn't where I'm gonna play my college ball at,'" Kamara said recently. "So I made a decision, and I feel like it was the best decision I could've made ... just the way everything played out.

"I enjoyed my time, I enjoyed my teammates. I just decided that I felt like it wasn't for me."

You might think this is a common story, since Alabama has been piling up star-studded recruiting classes along with national championships during the Nick Saban era. But Kamara is actually one of a kind.

AL.com did a detailed breakdown last year of every Saban recruit who transferred away from Alabama since 2008 -- and none had ever been drafted before this year.

"We thought he was a great player, we thought he would've been a great player," Saban said Wednesday. "He got injured when he was a freshman and missed three or four weeks, and so it put him behind a little bit in the learning of the offense. He didn't get to play that much. And it was unfortunate, but it's worked out well for him. So we're very happy for him and his family."

Saban said he doesn't have much time to see what's going on in the NFL. But of Kamara he said, "My memories basically are the great career he had at Tennessee," where the back piled up 1,294 rushing yards, 683 receiving yards and 24 total touchdowns in two years (though he was probably underused a bit there, too, in a timeshare with Jalen Hurd).

"It's not any surprise to me that he's doing extremely well," Saban said.

'I was very immature'

Kamara insisted he didn't leave Alabama because of the competition at running back, which also included Henry, Altee Tenpenny and Tyren Jones in the same blockbuster 2013 recruiting class.

"I think that's a misconception about me leaving Bama. It was never one of those things where I was like looking to my left and right and was like, 'Oh, these guys are good; I've gotta get out of here.' Shoot, I knew what I was getting into," Kamara said. "That's one of the reasons I went there. I wanted to compete. But just a couple things happened to where I just knew I couldn't be there."

Kamara said he wasn't forced to leave for academic or disciplinary reasons, either, and that Alabama's coaches wanted him to stay. He said even his mom wanted him to try and stick things out.

Kamara had 1,294 rushing yards, 683 receiving yards and 24 total touchdowns in two years at Tennessee. Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire

But Kamara did admit that he was "very immature" during that freshman year at Alabama.

He was suspended twice (once during the regular season and once for the Sugar Bowl). And he was arrested for driving with a suspended license shortly after he left Alabama.

But Kamara's junior college coach, Rion Rhoades, told the New Orleans Advocate that he did his homework on Kamara and found out that the suspensions were the result of punctuality issues and a missed curfew, and that the arrest was minor. And Rhoades said Kamara owned up to those mistakes and had a terrific attitude during his breakout year with the Blue Dragons (1,469 yards of total offense and 21 touchdowns in nine games).

"Being at Bama, I was very immature. Just young, living life, just living. Honestly, that's the best way I can put it: just living," Kamara said. "And when I got to Hutchinson, it just slowed me down a little bit, and it made me realize to see the bigger picture, more than I already thought I saw it.

"There were some situations at Alabama I could've handled better. And I just know, like, looking back, 'Dang, I could've handled that better.' Interacting with people or teammates, anything. Just situations where you look back like, 'I could've went about this a different way or did this a different way or actually did this.'

"I grew a lot as a person and figured out what was really for me."

The one drawback of Kamara's year in Kansas was the weather. The native of Norcross, Georgia, was stunned the first time it snowed -- and even more stunned that it didn't seem to faze anyone else.

"I thought everything was about to be canceled, and everybody was walking around, driving like it was normal. And I was like, 'No way,' " Kamara said. "I skipped class that day."

'Whatever we put on his plate'

Flash forward two years, and Kamara's maturity has been one of the traits that has most impressed his current coaches and teammates.

Sean Payton raved about Kamara's football IQ during the Saints' on-campus visit to Tennessee, saying he even joined in the quarterback meeting and showed off his knowledge of the scheme. Earlier this summer, Payton compared Kamara's intelligence and comprehension of the routes to that of Marshall Faulk, whom Payton said was "one of the smarter players I ever coached."

Rookie Alvin Kamara has proven to be a dynamic threat out of the backfield for the Saints this season. Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports

And Kamara's role has continued to grow with each passing week, as he has proven he can take on more and more of the offense. He has been even better as a between-the-tackles runner than the Saints expected, leading the NFL with 6.5 yards per carry.

"This system, especially I think for a running back, you have the ability to do a lot of things, depending on what you can handle," Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. "And thus far, he's shown that he's been capable of whatever we put on his plate. He can run between the tackles, he can run outside, we can throw the ball to him out of the backfield, he can protect, we can split him out and almost treat him like a receiver. So he's very versatile.

"He's got some unique talents and a unique skill set. But I think more so than that, he's got the intelligence to handle it all and, I think, a maturity, too, beyond his years, that just gives him a certain level of poise in any situation just to be able to come through and make the play.

"We've obviously put him in a lot of different positions, and I think for him and Mark, it's really plug and play. It doesn't matter who's in there, we can open up the whole offense and do whatever we want to do."

The Saints liked Kamara so much that they considered drafting him with the No. 42 pick in Round 2, where they instead selected starting free safety Marcus Williams.

But soon after, as Kamara kept slipping, they started calling teams looking to acquire another pick. They wound up trading their 2018 second-round pick and their 2017 seventh-rounder to get Kamara at No. 67 overall.

They were one team that was determined to not let him get away.