The wrestling matches take place inside Alabama's locker room.

Players gather and watch.

It's one defensive lineman vs. another.

This one featured A'Shawn Robinson, the Tide's 6-foot-4, 320-pound first-team All-American, versus Dalvin Tomlinson, a three-time wrestling state champion in high school and the unofficial champ among the Tide's defensive linemen.

One round ended without a winner.

Tomlinson won in Round Two, pinning Robinson after taking him to the ground.

"I was his best opponent by far in wrestling, but I got tired and he picked up my leg," Robinson said. "I got lazy and I wasn't grappling. But he got me, though. He got me."

Robinson, Jarran Reed and Jonathan Allen are the big names along Alabama's defensive line.

NFL draft analysts project all three could go in the first round of next year's NFL draft.

Tomlinson? He's part of the Tide's defensive line rotation, a "Renaissance man" off the field who has overcome significant personal and football-related adversity in becoming an under-the-radar contributor for the top-ranked defense in the nation.

"He's played extremely well for us, and we consider him a starter, even though he doesn't start," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "We certainly consider him that way, and he plays a huge role on the defensive front because of the diversity that he has as a player."

'Renaissance man'

Tomlinson grew up on Tomlinson Street in McDonough, Georgia, a street named after his great grandfather.

He lived with his mother, older brother, aunt and grandmother.

The surrounding houses are occupied by other family members.

Henry County High School, which is on Tomlinson Street, is a short walk from Tomlinson's house.

Like he has at Alabama, Tomlinson excelled at football at Henry County, but also in other areas.

The first wrestler in state history to win three heavyweight championships, Tomlinson finished his senior season 49-0.

He won the state championship match in just nine seconds, quickly driving his opponent to the ground and pinning him.

Academically, Tomlinson had a GPA close to a 4.0 despite taking honors and Advanced Placement classes.

He also plays both the saxophone and trumpet, draws and is the rare football player among non-kickers or punters to also play soccer in high school.

Tomlinson's high school football coach, Mike Rozier, has called Tomlinson a "Renaissance man" for several years.

"He's just very well rounded," Rozier said of Tomlinson, a current redshirt junior who graduated from Alabama with a finance degree Saturday and plans to pursue a master's degree.

Early in Tomlinson's sophomore year, a substitute gym teacher was taking roll when she looked into the bleachers where the students were sitting and saw Tomlinson.

He wasn't paying attention. It looked like he may be writing. So Rozier went to check.

Tomlinson was drawing a picture of his mother.

"I went over there and looked at it, and I was like, 'Oh, my Lord. I had no idea that you could draw like this,'" Rozier said. "It was an unbelievable picture. That's the first time I realized that he could draw. He's an unbelievable artist. He could probably sell some of that stuff."

Tomlinson's roommate at Alabama, offensive lineman Korren Kirven, likes to draw, too.

The two will draw together when there's time. Sometimes in the living room. Sometimes in Tomlinson's room with Tomlinson at his desk and Kirven in a nearby recliner.

"When I was young, I used to watch my dad and my mom draw and doodle and stuff like that," Tomlinson said. "They used to write letters to each other and draw pictures on the envelopes and stuff like that. And then my older brother used to draw a little bit when I was in middle school. And just watching other people draw made me want to learn how to do it and get better at it."

Tomlinson draws mostly cartoon and anime characters from shows such as Batman and Dragon Ball Z.

The drawing he's most proud of is one a white tiger that he began as a senior at Henry County and didn't finish until his freshman year at Alabama.

"It's a pencil drawing," Tomlinson said. "The whole picture is straight lines and they're going in opposite directions. ... And it actually came out looking like a real tiger."

Adversity-filled journey

Drawing is a hobby for Tomlinson. It's also been an important distraction at times during a difficult past several years.

Tomlinson's father died of cancer when Tomlinson was 5. He then lost his mother, Melinda, unexpectedly to heart disease and kidney failure in June 2011 during the summer leading into his senior year of high school.

She had been admitted to the hospital around three days before she died, but seemed like she was doing fine aside from experiencing back pain.

Dalvin was at the hospital with her the previous day. Inside the hospital room, they talked about football, Dalvin's upcoming final year of high school and his college choices.

"I had been working that day," Dalvin's uncle, Eddie Tomlinson said. "And when I asked him how his mother was doing, he said, 'She's doing fine.' She was complaining about her back a little, but he she was doing fine. But then, at about 1 o'clock that morning, is when I received a call that she had taken a turn for the worse."

She died that next day.

"She was the biggest influential person in my life," Dalvin said. "She was my best friend. We could talk about anything. She always motivated me to be better, and she was always proud of all of my accomplishments."

Then, during the following spring, Tomlinson suffered a torn ACL in his left knee while playing for his school's varsity soccer team.

The injury contributed to Tomlinson redshirting during his first season at Alabama in 2012.

A year later, Tomlinson made four tackles in the Tide's season-opening win over Virginia Tech. He then suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in practice the following week. A season-ending injury after just one game.

The knee was still an issue as a redshirt sophomore last season.

He played in all 14 of Alabama's games and had 22 tackles, 5.5 stops for a loss and two sacks. But teammates saw Tomlinson favoring that right knee.

That hasn't been the case this year.

Tomlinson said as early as the spring, "I feel as if I never got hurt in the first place."

"Dalvin is a guy that has had to overcome a tremendous amount personally as well as from a football career standpoint," Saban said. "He had two ACLs early in his career. Didn't get to play much for a couple of years. Has shown great character in how he's handled personal injuries to get back and continue to improve and get better."

Playing a role

Tomlinson always wanted to play for homestate Georgia.

But the Bulldogs didn't begin recruiting him until late in his junior year. Alabama started recruiting Tomlinson as a sophomore, Rozier said.

"Coach Saban always said, 'Man, that guy's got a motor. It never stops,'" Rozier said.

Despite being a backup, the 6-foot-2, 295-pound Tomlinson ranks 11th among Tide defenders with 30 tackles and has six pass deflections.

He was tied with cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick for the team-lead with six pass deflections through mid-October.

That's not common for a defensive lineman, especially a backup, though there is a downside to being good at timing and deflecting quarterbacks' passes.

During a practice in September, Tomlinson reached up to bat a pass thrown by Tide quarterback Jake Coker, who has one of the stronger arms in the country.

"It was point blank range, and I blocked it," Tomlinson said. "My hand was numb for a few days."

The wrestling background helps, too, both on the field and during those matches inside Alabama's locker room.

"Technique is always harped [with defensive linemen]," Robinson said. "... I feel like he has the best technique, the best hand technique."

Tomlinson has faced and beaten most, if not all, of the Tide's defensive linemen in wrestling. That includes all three potential 2016 first round picks and promising freshman nose tackle Daron Payne, who can already bench press 500 pounds.

Maybe the only defensive lineman Tomlinson hasn't wrestled is sophomore Da'Shawn Hand, a former Virginia state champion wrestler whom Rivals ranked as the top overall football prospect in last year's recruiting class.

"We're waiting to see that," Robinson said, "but they won't let that happen."