All three Alabama BCS national-championship teams included Damion Square. But the defensive lineman said it’s hard to top the enjoyment he got out of the Los Angeles Chargers’ 2018 campaign.

“Last year was so fun,” Square said while taking part in the Chargers website’s “Ride Along” feature. “That was one of the best, if not the best, football seasons that I’ve been a part of in my entire life.”

In 2015, Square's first season with the Chargers, they won four games. The next year, the Chargers won five games. In 2017, the win total jumped to nine, and in 2018, Los Angeles posted a 12-4 regular-season record to earn its first postseason berth since 2013 and picked up a playoff victory, too. Six of the Chargers' wins came by a margin of six or fewer points, including two one-point victories.

Los Angeles' rise has built excitement for its prospects in 2019.

“The thing about football seasons is they don’t stack,” Square said, “and the only thing you do from last year is create expectations. And I want to see how this team is going to handle the expectations.”

In 2018, Square saw the most action of his career in his sixth NFL season. He made 11 starts at defensive end and nose tackle for the Chargers with Joey Bosa and Brandon Mebane missing time. Square entered the 2018 season with eight starts in his NFL career.

Square registered 31 tackles, three sacks and seven quarterback hits (all career highs) while playing 530 defensive snaps (52 percent of Los Angeles' plays) last season.

Square entered free agency off that performance, but he didn't re-sign until May 13, two months after the free-agency period opened.

“We held out for a little bit,” Square said. "Of course, in free agency, you’ve got things that you want. At the end of the day, we got some good things done. I was excited to be back with my guys and just ready for the new year. …

"You want to be a part of the thing that you built, and I felt like I was part of the building blocks of this organization, getting it where it is right now. We got to the postseason last year, and I just want to be a part of where this organization is headed, and to be able to do that, I'm very excited."

Bosa and Melvin Ingram return as Los Angeles’ defensive ends. On the interior, the Chargers also re-signed Mebane, and while Los Angeles lost former Vigor High School standout Darius Philon to the Arizona Cardinals in free agency, it used its first-round draft choice in April on another defensive tackle, Notre Dame’s Jerry Tillery.

The Chargers report for training camp in Costa Mesa, California, on July 24. Los Angeles kicks off its four-game preseason schedule on Aug. 8 against the Cardinals. The regular season starts on Sept. 8 against the Indianapolis Colts.

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