TUSCALOOSA -- Dalvin Tomlinson is a freak of nature in the eyes of outside linebacker Ryan Anderson.

The fifth-year senior defensive end is widely considered to be the best wrestler on the Crimson Tide’s roster, and over the course of his career, Tomlinson has proven to be fairly decent at football, too. And Alabama’s Renaissance man along its defensive line has added another notch in his utility belt, one as a starter that continues to surprise his Crimson Tide teammates.

“Dalvin is a big part of this defense,” Anderson said. “He doesn’t get a lot of credit he deserves, but Dalvin is a monster. He’s been that way for a while. He can run, pass rush. Thursday we were talking and I thought he was like 280 (pounds). He’s like 310, so he got up on the scale and I was like ‘Dang, he don’t look like it. He don’t play like it.’ He’s one of the fastest D-linemen we have besides Da’Shawn (Hand). He’s big. Dalvin is a big-time player, man.”

But Anderson’s opinion is not exclusive to the senior linebacker. Anderson wasn’t around when Tomlinson won three heavyweight championships at Henry County (Ga.) High School. He didn’t watch the now 6-foot-3, 307-pound defensive lineman defend the goal on the soccer field in his high school days. He’s simply watched him become a leader on Alabama’s defense.

And that has been an impressive feat, itself, considering what the redshirt senior has endured in his life. Losing both of his parents -- his father when he was five years old and his mother just before his senior year at Henry County -- and overcoming injuries early on in his college career, Tomlinson has used football and other mediums to overcome the adversity he has faced.

An avid artist in his free time, as well as a musician, the McDonaugh, Ga., native tied defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick for the team-lead in pass breakups last year with six, and he already has one this season. Tomlinson has also been a major factor in stopping teams’ run games and applying pressure to quarterbacks this fall, using his hands to overcome his opponent.

“Dalvin probably has the best hands on the team,” Anderson said. “I watch a lot of things he does with his hands, and I can’t really pick up on it, it’s just natural, the stuff he does. I don’t know if he took jujitsu or something in the jungle. It’s just so quick.”

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Using his hands better than most anyone at his position, maybe in the entire country, Tomlinson is able to disrupt a play from multiple angles. That’s something he worked to improve this summer, ahead of his fifth-year senior season.

“I feel like on play-action passes, I convert my run to pass a lot quicker now,” Tomlinson said. “And then if I can’t get to the quarterback I get my hands up just to affect the ball, the direction of the ball coming out of the quarterback’s hand and stuff like that.”

The Tide’s Renaissance man possesses a seemingly endless skill set, on and off the field, but what will always stick with him are the skills he learned while wrestling. They translate directly to the football field, his newest canvas, and have helped him become the player he is today -- as well as the one guy in the locker room absolutely no one wants to challenge to a match.

On his way to winning three state titles in high school, Tomlinson accumulated a record of 49-0 during his senior year and 169-2 in his career. What happened in the two losses? “The first one was my first-ever varsity match, and I was nervous and lost by points. And the second one, I got disqualified for hip-tossing a dude onto his neck,” Tomlinson quickly recalled Monday.

“I feel like wrestling was probably the biggest thing that helped out just because you learn leverage and that’s a big key to defensive line-offensive line,” he said. “So I feel like wrestling is probably the biggest sport that helped out.”

And just like wrestling helped Tomlinson improve, his strength and diverse approach to the field has helped Alabama’s defense -- as well as its offensive line, which is tasked with stopping the three-time champion on a daily basis.

"He is a technician, for sure,” first-team center Bradley Bozeman said of Tomlinson. “No matter what you game plan for him, he’s always gonna be there with a counter for it. He’s a really good defensive lineman.”

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