So much action happened on Monday.
Alabama football got an updated roster, its schedule was released via SEC Network, it opened the first of 20 fall practices, and Nick Saban held his first presser via Zoom.
After a long offseason, it felt good for Crimson Tide fans and the local media to hear Saban’s thoughts heading into his 14th season at head coach. While the majority of his comments were on public health and safety for the players, due to Coronavirus concerns, he did have one injury update on the defensive side of the ball.
Brandon “Ale” Kaho, who played in 13 games last year, suffered a slight knee injury.
“He’ll (Kaho) probably be out for a few days,” Saban said.
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Kaho totaled 20 tackles as a sophomore and blocked three punts, including two recovered for touchdowns.
He’s added seven pounds to his 6-foot-1 frame this summer, going from 228 to 235.
A native of Reno, Nev., Kaho looks to become a factor at inside linebacker this year.
When it comes to Alabama’s defense, the last two years were not what fans grew accustomed to. The Crimson Tide gave up over 18 points per game in 2018 and 2019 and per Saban, the leadership needs to be better.
“We need to improve overall on defense,” Saban said. “We gave up 18.5 points per game last year, which was the most we have given up. The last two years we have given up the most points we’ve had for a long time. We have to play better against the run. I don’t think we played well in the red area last year. We did a great job of getting turnovers. We got 28 last year, which was first in the conference, but we have to get more physical at the line of scrimmage.”
He missed the entire 2019 campaign with a serious knee injury; however, Saban believes Dylan Moses will provide some of the leadership at inside linebacker. The redshirt junior will need help and it must come from the defensive line and secondary.
Of its 28 takeaways, 15 were interceptions from defensive backs.
The Tide had a veteran secondary a season ago and with Xavier McKinney, Trevon Diggs, Jared Mayden and Shyheim Carter all graduated to the National Football League, Saban must rebuild at the position. He has a lot of good players, including Josh Jobe, Jordan Battle, Jalyn Armour-Davis, Daniel Wright and Eddie Smith among others, but they need more experience.
“We have confidence in them, but getting them experience is going to be the key to the drill,” Saban said.
Even with not having spring practice, Saban and Alabama took full advantage of Zoom calls.
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“A lot of these Zoom things we did in the offseason and meetings we had really helped players conceptually understand defense and what they were supposed to do,” Saban said. “Maybe not so much how they were supposed to do it, but why it’s important to do it that way and what they were supposed to do, I think there was a lot of benefit to it.”
A hungry Tide program looks to return to the College Football Playoff stage and capture its 18th national title in school history.
For Saban, he eyes national championship No. 7 to put him over Paul W. “Bear” Bryant.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
