Tosh Lupoi first spotted Shane Lee during a trip to the Gilman School weight room in Maryland in early 2015.

Not realizing Lee had yet to even reach high school, the former Alabama assistant went up to one of the team’s coaches and pointed at Lee, who was already about 6-feet tall and a solid 215 pounds.

“Tosh grabbed me and says, ‘Who the heck is that kid? Why didn’t you tell me about him?’” recalled Henry Russell, who coached Lee at Gilman before also coaching him at St. Frances Academy. “I was like, ‘Tosh, he’s still in the eighth grade.’”

Four years later, Lee is up to 245 pounds and now set to be an important figure in the middle of the Crimson Tide defense as a true freshman.

Lee, known as ‘The Hulk’ among his high school teammates, is being called on to step in and start at the inside linebacker position previously occupied by preseason first-team All-American Dylan Moses, who suffered a season-ending knee injury during the Tide’s practice on Tuesday.

Alabama was already going to be depending on a true freshman at the other inside linebacker position, Christian Harris. Now, the team will be depending on another true freshman, Lee, to not only step in for Moses but also to take over as the Tide’s defensive play-caller.

“Fortunately, Shane Lee and Christian Harris — whether they were starters or backups, either one — they were both bright guys,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said Wednesday. “They’ve been very engaged in what they have to do to be able to go play. I don’t think there’s any substitute for experience. So now they’re going to get an opportunity to get some of that where they have an opportunity to apply the knowledge that they have. We just have to do a really good job as coaches to try to get them in the best situations that we know they understand what to do and they can go out there and execute it.”

Lee, whose dad is a police officer and whose mom works in cyber security, was the defensive leader last year for a St. Frances team that finished the year ranked ninth nationally by MaxPreps.

The four-star recruit had an interception during the Tide’s spring game in April and had gotten some first-team reps during the preseason even before the Moses injury.

“The good thing with Shane is he comes from a defense where he made checks and it’s not new for him,” Russell said. “We make a lot of checks on the field with our linebackers. And Shane’s a very smart kid. He works extremely hard. Physically, he’s been ready since he was a freshman in high school. He’s a brick house. He runs well. He’s strong as an ox. So physically, I don’t really worry about him too much. I think it’s more getting all the mental stuff down and the speed of the college game, but I think he’s a lot more comfortable. ... If you had asked him to come in and start at the beginning of the spring, it would have been really tough. But now, he’s got the spring under his belt, camp under his belt and now the only thing he’s got to get is some game experience.”

Fortunately for Alabama, Lee has a track of record of stepping up as a freshman.

As a freshman at Gilman, Lee was called on at a critical moment of the team’s conference title game in a matchup against their biggest rival, McDonogh.

With Gilman up 35-28, McDonogh was facing a fourth-and-5 late in the fourth quarter. Sent on a blitz off the edge, Lee got to the quarterback and delivered a big hit as the ball was being thrown. Impacted by the hit, the quarterback’s pass flew out of bounds and Gilman won the championship.

“For a freshman in that situation to make that play, I’ll never forget it and was so proud of Shane for his effort and as a freshman to come in and do that,” Russell said.

It’s part of the reason Russell sent Lee the message he did on Wednesday upon learning of the Moses injury and his former player’s new role.

“I wished him luck,” Russell said, “but I let him know that he’s ready for this.”

Matt Zenitz is an Alabama and Auburn reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.