The decision from two years ago that made fourth-and-31 possible for Alabama football

LOS ANGELES — Imagine if, when Alabama football needed a miracle play against Auburn on fourth-and-31 in the 2023 Iron Bowl, Isaiah Bond would have been on the sideline with the defense.

Imagine if the hero wouldn’t have been with the offense to make the catch in the end zone that beat Auburn and kept the Crimson Tide’s College Football playoff hopes alive.

It’s not that wild of a concept because Bond could have been a defensive back. Two years ago when he came to Alabama, he had a decision to make. Play defensive back at Alabama? Or play receiver?

“Coming out of high school, I was an athlete, so I played DB as well,” Bond said Thursday. “So they wanted me to play DB at first, but I ended up making that switch to offense because I wanted to play receiver.”

The decision has proved to be a good one of late especially, and not just because of the game-winning catch in the Iron Bowl. Bond has become a reliable target for quarterback Jalen Milroe. Another example: The receiver made some important grabs in the SEC Championship Game to beat Georgia.

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This season, Bond has caught 44 passes for 621 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Even though Bond won’t likely be playing defensive back anytime soon for Alabama (Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold have the Crimson Tide covered there), Bond’s time as a defensive back wasn’t a waste. Far from it.

“I felt like honestly it helped me a lot,” Bond said. “Just knowing really what a DB, what goes in their head because I was a DB, what coverages are, what a DB might do in a situation. I feel like all that background knowledge does actually help me at receiver as well.”

It’s helped him so far, and Alabama hopes it will help Bond again vs. Michigan in the Rose Bowl on Monday (4 p.m. CT, ESPN) in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men’s basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.