Former UGA DT Jonathan Taylor enrolling at Alabama

Former Georgia defensive linesman Jonathan Taylor, who was thrown out of Athens for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, has enrolled in Alabama, the Crimson Tide has announced.

Taylor still faces charges in Athens. ESPN’s report said that he was arrested on July 22nd : “After police say he struck his girlfriend with a closed fist and choked her during an argument at his dormitory room at McWhorter Hall. A UGA police report said Taylor is 6-foot-4 and 340 pounds; police said his girlfriend is 5-foot-11, 170 pounds.

Taylor, and a number of other players, were also arrested in the theft-by-deception fiasco in which they cashed cheques for food from the Georgia Athletic Department twice.

ESPN noted that Nick Saban has talked in the past about giving players a second chance: “There’s always a lot of criticism out there when somebody does something wrong, everybody wants to know how you’re going to punish the guy…There’s not enough for 19- and 20-year-old kids, people out there saying, ‘Why don’t you give them another chance? Where do you want them to be? Guy makes a mistake. Where do you want them to be? You want him to be in the street, or do you want them to be here graduating?

Taylor was part of eight early enrolees to Tuscaloosa. Also included were:

  • QB Blake Barnett of Corona, Calif.
  • RB DeSherrius Flowers of Prichard
  • OL Dallas Warmack of Atlanta
  • OL Brandon Kennedy of Wetumpka
  • DB Deionte Thompson of Orange, Texas
  • DB Ronnie Harrison of Tallahassee, Fla.

However, Taylor’s signing should stir the biggest voices in the National Media.