Trevon Diggs has been counting down the days until Saturday, Aug. 31, since he felt something break in his foot last October in Fayetteville, Ark. Although he was able to participate in spring practice, the Alabama senior hasn’t faced an opposing team since his junior season ended after six games.

“I’m real anxious. I’m excited,” Diggs said. “I haven’t played against someone else in a long time.”

When the Crimson Tide kicks off its 2019 season tomorrow, it will be the first time Diggs suits up in an actual game in more than 10 months. Just thinking about being on the field again with his teammates stretches a smile across his face. But that smile was rare in the weeks following his injury.

After finally stepping into a permanent starting role at cornerback in 2018 and leading the team in pass breakups through the first six contests, Diggs’ breakout campaign would not continue.

Diggs had only missed one game in his first two seasons in crimson -- a Week 6 game at Texas A&M in 2017 -- and his mother, Stephanie Diggs, couldn’t recall a time her son was sidelined in his youth. Having to watch road games from somewhere other than the sideline took its toll on Diggs.

“I saw him get down,” Stephanie Diggs said. “We had talked several times. Not being able to travel with the team, he kind of felt isolated. Players get kind of down when they’re not a part of the team and not being a part of something that they love.”

But it wasn’t just his mother that noticed Diggs struggling to cope with the setback.

“Last year, with his injury, I know he was down,” senior defensive back Shyheim Carter said. “I talked to him after the injury and stuff and tried to cheer him up. It was hard knowing that you can’t play the rest of the season with your brothers and you put all the work in you possibly could over the summer and the spring and you can’t play for the rest of the season, that hurts anyone.”

At Alabama, Nick Saban and his staff stay in communication with injured players “to encourage them, to support them -- teammates, coaches, everybody in the organization.” And that was true in this case. Stephanie Diggs reached out to former defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi when she realized her son was having a difficult time, and counselors checked on Diggs the following day.

Determined to get out of his rut, Diggs learned to take a different approach to his situation. He couldn’t play or travel with the team, but he could still go to meetings, watch film and provide his fellow defensive backs with feedback from the sideline that might not be apparent on the field.

“I feel like over time, I’ve started to do that more and more and more,” Diggs said, “and I feel like that helped out a lot. I’m actually glad I started doing that because I learned a lot. I learned so much, as far as like formations and player personnel and where the receivers and stuff line up at.”

Dealing with his broken foot was a trying time for the Gaithersburg, Md., native, but one thing that got him through the recovery process -- or any daily struggles -- was his two-year-old son, Aaiden.

“That’s the main thing that motivates me,” Diggs said. “I’ve got somebody to feed at home, so I have a whole responsibility I’ve got to take care of. I feel like that’s what motivates me the most.”

Diggs is a young father, so he is still learning the ropes of parenthood. He watches how coaches and teammates act when they bring their children to the facility, and he asks a lot of questions. While he doesn’t get to see Aaiden, who lives in Maryland, every day, his son is always on his mind, and that was especially true in January shortly after the 2018 college football season ended.

Prior to his injury, Diggs was one of the Tide’s top defensive backs and had he stayed healthy, he would have likely been one of the top prospects at his position in the 2019 NFL Draft. Even with the season-ending injury, Diggs still thought about leaving school early and turning pro.

“I was highly considering it,” Diggs said. “I was just thinking I do have a son, I do have a responsibility to take care of him. He’s getting older, and that is my son, so I was thinking about leaving. But at the end of the day, I’ve kind of got a backbone, I’ve got my brother (Stefon Diggs). My brother would never let nothing bad happen to my son. My son’s always going to be taken care of.

“So, I feel like if I just do what I do, do what’s supposed to be done and just sticking to God’s plan, everything will work out perfectly. So, that’s why I had decided to stay.”

Trevon Diggs and his son, Aaiden

Diggs spoke to his immediate family and coaches, both at the college and high school level, before coming to a decision, and his choice to return to school was one that made this mother happy.

“I always wanted him to come back because I wanted him to get a degree, of course,” Stephanie Diggs said, “and be prepared for life after football.”

Academics have been emphasized in the Diggs household as long as the now-college senior can remember, and that dedication to schoolwork was established by his late father, Aron Diggs, who passed away of congestive heart failure in January of 2008. He was 39 years old.

“My dad was a good father to me,” Diggs said. “He always took me to football practice. Always made me do my homework at home, always made me do chores around the house. I couldn’t go outside unless my room was clean and stuff like that. The little bit of time that I did have with him, I enjoyed it, and I feel like it left just the right amount of impact with me to be able to carry that over and take it to my son.”

Stephanie Diggs added: “That played a great part because with their father being coach, all they knew was football practice, homework, working out, working out extra with their father, and he just had them on a strict discipline -- football, homework, school, church. And they had followed that up until his passing, and it kind of laid the foundation for what they believe in now in working hard.”

Although Aron Diggs died more than a decade ago, Diggs is still striving to please his father. Two seasons ago, when players were allowed to wear Sharpie-inscribed messages, “RIP DAD” was visible on the wristband hanging from the then-sophomore cornerback and returner’s belt.

“I think about him a lot. It was motivating me a lot,” Diggs said. “I always wanted to make my dad proud. I feel like he always had football in our life, always had my brothers playing football, always had me playing football. So, I feel like I just want to make him proud. I feel like when I wrote that, he was watching down on me, watching me play. That was motivation for me.”

Undoubtedly, his mother knows Aron Diggs would have been proud of his youngest son.

“Oh, most definitely,” Stephanie Diggs said, “because my husband kind of knew that Stefon was going to be special at five, but just seeing Tre’s development, he would be very proud. Tre was learning everything, going to his big brother’s practices, so it was kind of like instilled him.”

Diggs always plays for his own son and his late father, two of his greatest sources of motivation. And now, after returning for one more year in Tuscaloosa, Ala., he is playing to finish what he started in 2018 and improve his draft stock, which is high entering the season. According to Dane Brugler, NFL draft analyst at The Athletic, Diggs is the No. 18 prospect for the upcoming 2020 draft.

“Diggs, who is the younger brother of Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs, has an elite combination of size and speed for the position,” Brugler wrote. “There is room for him to improve his technical skill and route awareness, but all the competitive and athletic ingredients (and bloodlines) are there for him to be a top-flight pro.”

At 6-foot-2, 207 pounds, Diggs is a big cornerback that the game has shifted to prefer in recent years. His coverage skills have improved every year since he’s been at Alabama, and last season before his injury, he registered a 27.3 percent forced incompletion percentage, according to Pro Football Focus, which ranked third in the SEC behind Eric Stokes (40.0) and Kristian Fulton (29.3).

Now healthy, the former 4-star recruit wants to prove “everything” to NFL scouts this fall.

“I want to show them I can go out there and play,” Diggs said, “be consistent and really just everything.”

Entering a pivotal senior year, Diggs has approached the offseason and preseason the right way.

“He’s worked really hard,” Saban said of Diggs. “I think he has a much better knowledge of what to do, how to do it, why it’s important to do it that way. … I’ve been really pleased with his progress, and even his leadership has been very, very good.”

He is a quiet guy both on and off the field, but the Crimson Tide’s defense and secondary is better with Diggs roaming the boundary at left corner, a position where he will start again this season.

“I am glad, honestly, to have those guys back,” said junior safety Xavier McKinney of Diggs and linebacker Terrell Lewis. “I think they’re a huge part of our defense, they’re going to play a huge role in our defense. Just having them back out there makes me feel comfortable, makes everyone else on the defense feel more comfortable, just to know that we have those guys back.”

With the foot injury firmly behind him, and his son and late father motivating him every step of the way, Diggs cannot wait for Alabama’s season opener against the Duke Blue Devils, which will take place inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT (ABC).

After a promising junior year was cut short, he is looking forward to starting a new breakout season.

“I want Alabama fans to remember me by what I produce this season,” Diggs said. “I feel like it’s going to be a good season, it’s going to be a good year, so I want them to remember me by this.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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