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Epps: Chapman will miss Cody but is ready to replace him

By: Darren Epps

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Josh Chapman

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The legend of Terrence Cody is real, you know. Like the time he ran two and a half miles up a mountain in high school. Or the time he palmed a laptop computer. Or the time he plopped down on a futon and broke it.

Speaking of plopping down ...

“We had a meeting and we saw him jump on a pile at the end of the play,” said Alabama noseguard Josh Chapman, who will replace Cody in the lineup tonight against Tennessee. “We rewinded it a couple of times. It was real funny. He was like a little frog out there on the pile.”

Chapman pauses for a moment.

“Well,” he said, “a big frog.”

Cody weighs 365 pounds. When a cart came to take him from the sideline to the training room after he sprained his MCL last Saturday against Ole Miss, people seriously wondered if the cart could hold him.

Speaking of trying to hold him ...

“If you watch from the sideline, directly from the side, you will see two guys from the line literally get pushed back 3 or 4 yards, and there’s really nothing they can do about it,” Alabama’s Javier Arenas said. “All-American? All-Globe? I don’t care what they are, you know what I mean? It’s fascinating to watch them get pushed back. Because they’re huge, but then again you’ve got this huger guy putting them in the quarterback’s lap.”

Talking to Alabama players and listening to them swap Cody stories is like sitting around a campfire and talking about a long-lost friend. And that’s the sad part. He is, at least for the next two weeks, lost. Cody will not play tonight.

And there’s a worry that Alabama will lose some emotion without this huge, funny man who loves cartoons, tells jokes in the huddle and sends his teammates into fits of laughter when he does that celebratory head-bob.

“I don’t think you replace guys like Cody,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “He’s a really good player. He’s played well for us. The other players like him.”

Even Chapman’s family and friends, while thrilled their man will start at Neyland Stadium tonight, can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness.

“They’re excited for me,” Chapman said, “but they all like Cody also, and they wish him well. Everybody likes Cody.”

Saban also expressed concern over the emotional loss of Cody, telling the players they need to support the linemen who are going to replace him. And that brings us to Chapman, a 305-pound redshirt freshman from Hoover, Ala.

In his own way, Chapman is also somewhat of a legend. He used to beat Cody in offseason sumo wrestling matches, saying his 6-foot-1 frame gave him an advantage. The Alabama players crowd around Chapman when he gets under the bar for a bench press. He can bench 485 pounds and squat 600. In ninth grade, he benched 315 pounds.

“He’s the Incredible Hulk, man,” Arenas said. “Especially when we’re bench-pressing. We don’t have that much space on the bar left to put another weight on. He’s a monster. He’s a maniac out there.”

Said quarterback John Parker Wilson: “It’s absurd. The bar starts bending. He squats more than all of my lifts combined.”

But Chapman must make his off-the-field feats translate into a dominant performance tonight against center Josh McNeil and Tennessee. The Tide allowed 17 points to Ole Miss in less than two quarters following Cody’s injury. Linebackers Rolando McClain and Don’ta Hightower need Chapman to occupy Tennessee’s linemen so they can continue stuffing the run unimpeded.

Chapman, who rotated with Cody before the injury, believes in himself. Saban said Chapman is a powerful, true noseguard for Alabama’s scheme. Arenas said he doesn’t expect much dropoff.

But you know they all miss Cody. Even Chapman misses Cody, despite his teammate still getting most of the attention before a game he won’t even play.

“It doesn’t bother me at all because I like seeing guys succeed also,” Chapman said. “I think Cody wishes the same for me.”

Alabama’s fans feel the same way. Maybe one day, after tonight, they’ll be telling stories about Chapman.

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