The Marshall County Tigers are toiling away on a hot afternoon in their royal blue and white…

The Marshall County Tigers are toiling away on a hot afternoon in their royal blue and white practice gear, working on an emerald plateau not far from the school’s front door.

It is here, alongside a highway named for a former Tennessee governor and not far from War Eagle Drive, outside a school with a menagerie of stuffed and ceramic LSU-looking Tigers, that the next great University of Alabama linebacker blossomed.

Mark McCarter of the Huntsville Times has a great write-up on Dont’a Hightower today, go and the read the whole thing.

Roll ‘Bama Roll