John Fulton

John Fulton photo

Wednesday August 21, 2013 11:50 pm

Teammates are talking about John Fulton’s progress as the Alabama cornerback prepares for his senior season.

Even folks outside the program have been telling him something is different – in a good way.

“I guess people can kind of see it,” the 6-foot, 186-pounder from Manning, S.C., told reporters earlier in training camp. “I don’t really see it with myself, but a lot of people tell me that.”

He’s in a much different place than he was this spring, when he rehabbed surgery for turf toe. He was held out of contact in spring practice, although he did eventually return for position drills and running. As frustrating as that time was, he tried to make the most of it. He got into two books – the Bible and his defensive playbook.

“At first, I was kind of mad about it,” he said of missing much of spring. “Then I just got closer to God. I started reading the Bible and reading books and it showed me that God does everything for a reason.

“While doing that, I got bigger, stronger and I learned the playbook in and out. He does everything for a reason and he did that to me so I could learn, learn how to be a leader and learn how to be consistent. So, it was for a great cause.”

Cornerback Deion Belue called Fulton – who played in 12 games last season with two starts – a “workaholic.”

“Like every down, you can guarantee he’s going to be there working for you, cheering you on,” Belue said. “That’s the man to be.”

Crimson Tide receiver Kevin Norwood, who also had offseason turf toe surgery and rehabbed next to Fulton, said they pushed each other to come back.

“We told each other that once we’re back, we’re going to go full speed,” Norwood said. “It’s something that me and him made up in our minds, that this is it for us – the last college season for us.

“He lines up in front of me. If I see something he’s doing and it looks like he’s showing a bit of a weakness, I’m going to tell him.”

Fulton said his time in rehab sparked his personal growth.

“I guess when I got injured, I got closer to God and that really brought all the good things out of me,” the cornerback said. “I wanted to be a leader. I wanted to be consistent. I wanted to buy in. I wanted to do the right things.”

His experience and comfort level with the defense certainly helped.

“He works hard, he knows the defense, he’s been in the system for a long time,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “He’s just got to get (more) consistency in performance.”

Fulton’s aggressive, can’t-be-beat style of play can work against him at times. He told reporters he dreams of being picked on by a quarterback.

“I hope they come at me,” he said. “I’m competitive. I want to be the greatest and I want to be the best. That’s why I want to go against the greatest person. I want to be on the best receiver. That’s my mentality.”

Saban said that attitude can serve any cornerback well, but there is a fine line between aggression and reckless – and he doesn’t want it crossed.

“Two things about playing corner: it’s not just how many plays you make, it’s also how many plays you give up,” the coach said. “That’s the thing that I try to sell our guys on.

“They think ‘I’ve got to make every play. Got to make every play.’ That’s a great attitude to have, that I don’t want anybody to catch any balls on me. That’s good. But you’ve also got to put yourself in position where you’re not taking chances to do that so that it opens up something else.

“That’s what we’re trying to get all of our guys at corner to do. And the guys that do it the best are going to be the guys that play.”

That lesson applies from seniors to newcomers. Fulton said he’s been impressed with the younger defensive backs like Maurice Smith, Jonathan Cook and Eddie Jackson, a trio of true freshmen.

“The younger guys are way better than I am when I was younger because I would not ask anybody any questions or anything like that,” Fulton said. “I didn’t want it to seem like I didn’t know what was going on – even though it would show in practice that I didn’t know what I was doing. I should have just asked questions.

“… But the younger guys, they ask questions so they learn way quicker than I would. Sometimes they ask me questions that I don’t know the answer to. So they are making me better at the same time, because I’ll go ask one of the coaches who tells me the answer so I can tell the younger guys.”

Fulton has solidly kept his position with the first group at cornerback.

“It’s a dream come true, really,” he said. “But right now I’m really working on being consistent, working on being a leader to the young guys and helping them out in any way I can.”

from: http://www.dothaneagle.com/sports/alabama/article_6671fca0-0ae6-11e3-8788-0019bb30f31a.html

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John Fulton was born in Manning, South Carolina according to http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/john_fulton_643905.html

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using the number/letter grid:

1      2    3       4       5       6     7    8     9
A      B   C      D      E       F      G     H      I
J   K    L      M      N     O   P    Q R
S     T      U      V     W     X      Y    Z

Where:

A = 1 J = 1 S = 1

B = 2 K = 2 T = 2

C = 3 L = 3 U = 3

D = 4 M = 4 V = 4

E = 5 N = 5 W = 5

F = 6 O = 6 X = 6

G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7

H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8

I = 9 R = 9

John Fulton

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