A glimpse into the extreme pressures that college football players and their parents can experience surfaced this week in the form of a concerning blog post by the mother of a former Alabama defensive lineman.

Donna Frazier, the mother of Joshua Frazier, penned “An Open Letter To Alabama Recruits & Parents,” and it is eye opening and important, but also strangely accusatory. She wrote that her son “fell prey” at Alabama to “deceptive tactics used by Nick Saban and his coaches.” Framed as a damning accusation, the blog claims that Joshua Frazier’s former position coach “coerced” him “into taking Vyvanse,” which is a medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and allowed by the NCAA.

Bo Davis, who was fired from Alabama for an unrelated NCAA violation, is the coach implicated by Donna Frazier, who goes on to write that her son became addicted to Vyvanse. An effort to reach Davis, now the defensive line coach for the Detroit Lions, went unanswered by the Lions PR staff this week.

Never a regular starter for Alabama, Joshua Frazier played briefly in the NFL, and then for the Birmingham Iron of the now-defunct Alliance of American Football before announcing his retirement from football this year. He addressed his mom’s blog post on Twitter, but emphasized that he didn’t want to talk about it. He then said that his story would one day be told.

“To put it simply,” Donna Frazier wrote, “when I sent my son to the University of Alabama, he was healthy and drug-free. He graduated in just 3 ½ years with a degree in Communications and a wicked addiction to Vyvanse...Just in case you're wondering, Joshua is now 11 months free of this horrible addiction and in the process of returning to some degree of normalcy following this incredibly painful journey.”

The dangers of drug use on campuses are a concern to every parent, of course. If you’re familiar with college these days, then you already know “study drugs” like Vyvanse, Ritalin, Concerta and Addarall are used by students. According to one study, “estimates are that up to 20% of college students abuse prescription stimulants, most often by ingesting medications not prescribed to them.”

Those might be shocking numbers to some, but it is a well-known national public health crisis. Coaches obviously are not medical professionals, so Donna Frazier’s account of her son’s experience reads like an assistant coach at Alabama illegally pressured her son into taking a medication.

It’s alarming to say the least. I reached out to Alabama for some clarification, and the school strongly pushed back against the accusations.

“While privacy laws prevent the University from sharing specific information about an individual, the health and well-being of our student-athletes is of primary concern,” Alabama said in a statement. “We follow proper medical procedures. Medications are prescribed by physicians, not coaches. The University takes these issues very seriously, going above and beyond many medical models. Any accusations to the contrary are false.”

After his mother’s post was published, Joshua Frazier made it clear on social media that he was upset with Donna Frazier for writing about him. He also emphasized his love for the University of Alabama, but did acknowledge some concerns.

“The program does have some issues that I wanted to address with them privately but my mom went ahead and posted that article,” Joshua Frazier wrote on social media. “I love my teammates more then[sic] anything and I wanted to do this silently as possible, because there are good people that I have met and develop[sic] relationships with in Bama and the time that I had there. And this has nothing to do with the fans more so the program itself. I hope you understand I love Bama just not the program I signed up to play for.”

Angry blogs and social media posts aren’t the most effective ways to address serious concerns, but it is important that Donna Frazier’s voice be heard. She’s a concerned parent, shedding light on the struggles of her son. It will matter to some that Donna Frazier originally wanted her son to play at the University of Arkansas, but it shouldn’t.

She is upset with Alabama, but the larger concern is the pressure student-athletes like her son face every day at campuses all over the country. Imagine the mental strain of the expectations alone. Everyone back home, including family members, thinks that guy who went to the big SEC school is going to be rich one day. Players’ identities are warped by recruiting rankings in high school, and then they’re hit with reality once they arrive on a college campus.

Joshua Frazier was ranked No.4 nationally among defensive tackle recruits in the 2014 recruiting cycle, and the No.1 overall player in Arkansas. At Alabama, there is always someone better.

In 2014, Frazier wasn’t among Alabama’s early enrollees. Then, for three years, he backed up Da’Ron Payne.

Payne was drafted in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, and Frazier went in the seventh. His college career didn’t go the way he expected, but at the same time he won two national championships and graduated in less than four years. Those are major accomplishments, and created a strong foundation for a successful adult life.

Players and parents need to be better educated before they arrive to colleges for official visits. The recruiting process, by nature, can badly obscure perspectives, and leave players and families feeling used or burned. That is a major problem of the system, and not just one program. Others can now learn from the experiences of the Frazier family.

It reminds me of something former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer used to tell his players at UF. Either take advantage of the system, or the system will take advantage of you.

Those are blunt words, and they might ring hollow coming from Meyer, but it’s the truth. At the same time, the enormous pressure on student-athletes inherent in those words can be dangerous. The mental health of students-athletes, who are under so much daily stress, must be one of the most serious concerns for universities.

The system of college football, with so much money at stake, is easily corruptible. We should all know this by now, but being reminded of it time and again is a lot better than forgetting.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.