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Freddie remembers the recruiting process well. “In one word, crazy. To this day, in 2007, I still do not answer the house phone. That’s how crazy it was. I come from a family with a lot of kids and I’m in the middle, so it’s never been about me. I’m a simple guy. It was overwhelming. I’d go the mail or to the coaches office and there would be stacks of mail for me. I didn’t like that my friends that I was playing ball with, that were in the same grade, were not getting any. It’s nice, but it gets to a point where it’s just crazy.” It came down to Alabama, Ole Miss, and Florida as Freddie was coming out of high school. “Really it came down to Florida and Alabama, but Coach Knox from Ole Miss. did a great job of recruiting me, but I wasn’t going to stay in Mississippi, I just wasn’t going to do it.” Freddie, like most kids, wanted his parents to be able to see him play, so in the end he decided to commit to the Crimson Tide. “Coach Dubose was the head coach at Alabama, but I didn’t talk to him much. What got me to ALABAMA was Coach Dabo Sweeny and Coach Stubbs. They sold me on the offense they were bringing in. I believed them and they kept their word. Things were going smooth my freshman and sophomore year and then my junior year something happened and the whole team was affected. To this day I don’t know what was going on, but I do know there was a change in how things were run. I think it was probably related to what was happening off the field. Whatever was going on affected the end product. We were 3-8, but we were losing a lot of those games in the fourth quarter. We were beating Tennessee, we were beating Auburn, and LSU, there were just so many games that we lost in the fourth quarter that caused us to go 3-8. Whatever happened between the coaches affected the team, the product and the morale. We, as players were really trying, but whatever was going on just really affected the end product. Coach Sweeny told me ‘you guys (the players) should not feel bad as players for what happened.’ His words were comforting, because we were out there playing and to know it wasn’t just us as players. Coach Cheese (Charlie Harbinson) was really responsible for my development as a man, not just a player. He wanted to make sure I had a life and to realize where my talent came from and that’s Jesus Christ. He was a mentor to me. It was a bad moment in our lives, but it was a lesson learned.” Freddie set a few records at ALABAMA, but those records have never been that important to Freddie; for him it’s more about the team. He says that was engrained in him from his old high school days. He currently holds the record for most receptions in both a single season and career with 65 and 152 respectively. Only five players have had more yards in a season and Freddie was second only to Ozzie Newsome in career yards for receiving with 1,859 until D.J. Hall eclipsed his record recently. When asked about the possibility of D.J. Hall breaking his record the humble Milons replies “Records are meant to be broken, they are nice to have, but it’s never been one of my main priorities. The type of coaches that I have always had, it was never about individual awards. It was all about the team. I remember my freshman year at BAMA. There were some guys talking about records and I didn’t even really know what my high school stats were. It just never meant that much to me. It’s nice to have them and to see them stand for so long, but it just has never been my thing. I don’t want to down play it. Whenever D.J. breaks it, it’s still something he worked hard for. It’s hard work, but it won’t bother me.” Though Freddie says he is not one of those “elbow to elbow kind of guys,” he still watches all the games with friends and family. “When the T.V. guys start talking crazy or saying something they really don’t know what they are talking about, the T.V. goes on mute. I really hated last year’s Arkansas game and how the majority of people came down on Coach Shula. Freddie reminisced about his playing days at Alabama and some of his fonder memories. “I remember my freshman year down in Alabama and the whole thing about us never winning down in Auburn. We were preparing for the game and we had some special gadget plays where I lined up in the backfield and my number was called and I was able to make a few plays and we eventually got the victory. On a personal level we played LSU my freshman year and they had me playing gunner and the return man was Kevin Faulkner. I got a chance to get his famous step off, but I got hold of him and did not let go. The other game that stands out is the first Florida game down in Gainesville my freshman year. At that time they had the longest home winning record in the nation. No offense defense, but you guys gave up nearly 30 points. Offensively we were clicking. Zow was on and we were all catching a lot of balls. But it was unreal for us to be the only ones cheering in the end. That game catapulted us with crazy confidence and carried us for the rest of the year.” Freddie says he respects Coach Spurrier, but doesn’t really hold the same feelings for Arkansas’ Coach Nutt. “When we went down to Arkansas, we got off the bus on Friday, Coach Nutt and the whole team were standing outside the bus, it was like we were getting ready to fight. Coach Dubose said ‘This is Alabama. You have to expect this. This is Alabama - we act with class.’ He says the entire Arkansas team, including Coach Nutt were taunting them, and that being a freshman he was not use to it. He said he was saying" 'Are we going to take that?' It was funny. We had an early morning game, 11:00 AM, and we had the worst breakfast. All the steaks were bloody, I mean bloody, bloody, the grits were hard like they had boiled the water and poured the grits in, and the eggs were also raw and runny. I was like man Arkansas ya’ll are wrong. When you go on trips the food is normally very good, not at Arkansas. I mean the food was very, very bad, it was terrible. To have the warm ‘welcome’ they gave us and then the food, it was funny.” Maybe the current Crimson Tide team can exact a little revenge on the Razorbacks for how they treated the '99 team. While I doubt that Coach Saban or the university would stoop to such levels, I am confident that they will do everything in their power to take them to the wood shed on the field. Editors Note:It's rare to see such a fierce competitor on the field be so humble in his everyday life. Freddie Milons represents the crimson and white jersey in a manner that should make all Tide fans happy. Roll Tide Freddie! Freddie and his family after winning the 1999 SEC Championship
Alabama vs. University of Tennessee
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