His career at Alabama began five years ago on a football field. Perhaps as early as this weekend, it will end on a baseball diamond.

In between, Keith Holcombe has experienced just about everything. He’s won two national championships with a perennial power and been a member of another team that finished dead last in the SEC two years in a row. He’s been around long enough to earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees, transition from linebacker to two-sport athlete to full-time outfielder and in his words go from “being from a boy coming in and leaving as a man.”

This odyssey, which began in 2014, has been unlike any other.

All the while, his mother, Kendra, had a front-row seat to witness every twist and turn.

“We’ve had a blast,” she said. “Everybody in the ticket office knows the Holcombes. We were at every baseball or football game somewhere.”

This past academic year has been different, however. The Holcombes’ appointment viewing has occurred entirely at Sewell-Thomas Stadium, which sits less than a mile down the road from Bryant-Denny, where their son had played from 2015 to 2017.

It’s at the football cathedral where Holcombe, a Tuscaloosa native, first made his name as a reserve linebacker and followed in the footsteps of his father, Danny — a former offensive lineman on Bear Bryant’s teams. Holcombe was a solid player, appearing in 44 games and producing 71 tackles. But the grind of playing football began to wear on him after he took up baseball in 2016. From August through May, Holcombe was constantly on the go.

“Because his body was taking such a toll, I think he realized if I am going to give 100 percent one of these sports, which one is it going to be?” Kendra said. “Which one do I think I have the best shot of going to the next level?”

Last summer, Holcombe determined it would be baseball. It wasn’t an easy decision. Understanding there would be a dearth in quality, experienced linebackers, multiple coaches with the football team tried to persuade him to return for another year and help Alabama win one more title.

“We’d love to have him come back in the fall,” Nick Saban said in March 2018. “I hope he chooses to do that."

Instead, he opted to invest his time exclusively in a program recently defined by its instability and losing.

During Holcombe’s tenure, Alabama baseball has cycled through three regimes — starting with Mitch Gaspard’s final season, continuing with Greg Goff’s failed one-year stint and eventually carrying forward into the current Brad Bohannon era.

“You have your ups and downs going through coaches,” Holcombe said. “You come here thinking you’re going to have one coach and another one leaves and so forth. That’s just part of it…That’s just something you have to deal with. It’s not something I am going to hold a grudge against or anything like that, because it has made me a better man because I have to grow up quicker. Life hits you in different ways for sure.”

It certainly has for Holcombe, who has dealt with his share of adversity — from Type 1 diabetes to labrum surgery in 2017 to a DUI arrest in last fall.

But Holcombe has persevered. This season, he’s hitting .268 with four home runs while starting 43 of the 44 games he’s played.

Throughout the spring, he’s maintained his competitive spirit despite Alabama’s ongoing struggles.

After achieving near-perfection with the football team, Holcombe has been repeatedly confronted with failure from his perch in the outfield. The Tide is among three teams tied for last place in the SEC, and depending on the outcome of the final conference series at No. 6 Georgia there is a possibility Alabama could miss the league tournament for the third straight year.

“It’s been frustrating for him,” Kendra Holcombe said. “He doesn’t like to lose.”

Yet it’s become part of Holcombe’s existence at Alabama, which has been a long, strange ride marked by a dichotomy of outrageous success and abject disappointment.

“That’s just how it is,” he said. “Sometimes it’s going to be smooth sailing. Sometimes it’s not going to be as smooth as you thought. But that’s life for you.”

He paused.

“That’s how baseball is.”

The former linebacker-turned-outfielder would now know more than ever.

Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin