Why Alabama Football Could Be Unstoppable in 2018 – Part Two – Defense
By: Larry Burton
Alabama could be just now approaching their peak years, a far cry from the media idiots who declared the Alabama dynasty to be over a few years back. In fact 2018 and 2019 could herald in back to back champions which would give Alabama a three-peat championship, something not done in the modern era of college football.
But what about the defense that’s losing so much talent this year? Won’t that be a liability that could be too tough to overcome?
No and here’s why the defense will work out just fine and Alabama’s program continues on its path of being unstoppable.
First and foremost let me remind you that the “Alabama’s losing too much talent on defense to be the same old unit” speech has given year in and year out in the Saban era, yet every year, Alabama continues to field one of the nation’s best defenses.
Yes, recruiting is the thing that most people point to and of course that is a critical part of the equation. But there are underlying other reasons that must not be overlooked and could be the primary reasons that this defense works out to be another monster.
First of all, in the Nick Saban system of defense, lots of players on defense get a shot at playing time, more than on most other teams. They get a shot to rotate in and out with with the ones and with other members of the twos and threes. Because they get some time, even in critical situations, they feel comfortable when their name is called and it’s their opportunities.
This is why the Nick Saban era defense has never had to rebuild, they have been able to simply reload with players who are already very talented, highly sought after recruits and experienced by having had their “opportunities” even while being freshmen and up.
Yes, there is no doubt that Alabama is losing what on most other teams would be a disastrous amount of talent. But with the exception of perhaps their first round safety, Minkah Fitspatrick, all the replacements could easily be found to be as highly talented, although perhaps not as experienced, as the folks they’ll take the place of. This is the Nick Saban defense year in and year out and I shouldn’t really be having to tell even the most jaded reader this. Yes it may not be actually be as good on day one as the defense that played in the national championship. But even if it’s not, it will grow and develop throughout the easy first half of the schedule and become the monster it will be.
Even if it’s bad and by bad I mean in Nick Saban defense bad, it may be the third or fourth best defense in the country and not the very best and with this offense they have at Alabama now with Tua Tagovailoa slinging the ball around to one of the nation’s best receiving corps or handing it off to one of the nation’s deepest running back pools, they can afford to have less than the nation’s best defense because this is an offense that scored 20 points in two quarters against one of the nation’s best defenses and the number two team in the nation. Can you see any Alabama defense giving up more than 40 points a game? I sure can’t, but I can see this offense averaging that or more every week.
If there’s ever a year that the offense could carry the defense through a rough game, it’s this offense and this upcoming season.
But if you’re still not sold, lets go through the positions and arguments.
Defensive Linemen – It all starts in the middle and Alabama is lucky to have big Johnny Dwight in the nose guard spot. At 6’3” and 305, the big junior will stop up the middle the way you expect an Alabama nose guard to do it. He rotated in and out even in the national title game last month and he’s more than ready for his turn at starting. Raekwon Davis and Isiah Buggs are already well known names for their play and they’ll hold down both ends. No reason to question anybody in this group.
Linebackers – Outside – Anfernee Jennings will be the coach on the field once he recovers from his knee problem he got in the first round of the Championship Series against Clemson and Christian Miller and Terrell Lewis are set to actually be a better pass rushing menace than what the Tide had last year, so everything looks good here.
Inside – Mack Wilson is someone who rattles teeth he tackles and is going to be the next big NFL must have linebacker from Alabama and Dylan Moses showed what he could do as a freshman who wasn’t as ready to be inserted as he will be this year. With Keith Holcomb who saw a lot of action, they have a good rotational guy who can play either inside spot. Heck with departures, this front seven looks to be ready to make their own history.
Corners – Trevon Diggs has been itching for his chance to regain a starting spot here. He’s got some good experience and isn’t afraid to be left on an island alone. Now for someone unknown by the casual Alabama fan. Saivion Smith could be the jaw dropping corner that Nick Saban has wanted for years. He was a five star recruit out of high school and landed in LSU for one season, then he went the JUCO route for one year and was the nation’s number one JUCO prospect at his position. If you want to worry about the secondary, this is not the place to worry about, the corners look to be great.
Safeties – OK, you just don’t replace Minkah Fitzpatrick and expect them to be as good right out of the gate, so yes, the safety position will suffer a bit. But maybe not as much as you’d really think, not with Deionte Thompson returning. Thompson made the most of Hootie Jones going down late in the season and he made some great plays and provided surprising skill throughout the championship run. Building on that, there’s one of the safeties that seem pretty darn ready to go. Next up may be Xavier McKinney who due to injuries got some good experience in many key games late in the season as well. McKinney is just a sophomore and he’ll have to fight off Daniel Wright, another sophomore, who also got some playing time at safety as a freshman and was a special teams headhunter for the whole year. Either of these two could do a good job for the Tide.
Lastly, the Star position looks to be all but handed to Shyheim Carter. He’s backed up Tony Brown the last few years and is ready to make a name for himself. At the recent Senior Bowl in Mobile, departing defensive back Levi Wallace thought this whole group has a chance to be really special. “I know they’re going to do great.” Wallace said and then noted that “Shy” played almost the whole second half in the championship game and that this experience would really help him. So now after hearing all this, do you feel a little better about all the people who departed from the secondary?
This is a solid unit, from nose guard to safety and as I said earlier, with the offensive production we’ll see from the Crimson Tide this year, there’s really no need to worry about the defense even if it plays poorer than expected.
Given the abundant embarrassing wealth of talent on offense and the great unit their expecting on defense playing this very soft schedule, it’s hard not to place the Alabama Crimson Tide back in the pre-season number one position and the likely winner of the next championship series. If you think I’ve missed something or over valued another, let us know in the comment section.
Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter
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