Alabama’s defense has gone through a resurgence so far this season, especially on the defensive front. Led by linebacker Will Anderson, the unit hasn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher, a team to score above 20 points while recording a team total of 12 sacks through four games.
Anderson deservedly gets most of the national attention for his individual production, but the unit as a whole has players all around that have coaches equally as concerned.
Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman discussed the Crimson Tide’s personnel and how dangerous and talented it is on defense. But aside from Anderson, Pittman has been quite impressed with linebacker Henry To’oto’o who he believes is playing the best football of his career.
“I think To’oto’o is playing his best ball I’ve ever seen him play,” Pittman said on the SEC head coaches teleconference. “So you go in there and you go, ‘OK, who do they have that can ruin our game plan?’ And they have several of those guys.”
To’oto’o is in his second year at Alabama after transferring from Tennessee in 2021. Since then the Sacramento, CA. native has been the bedrock in the center of Pete Golding’s defense and has impressed his teammates who have labeled him a “genius” along with head coach Nick Saban.
“Henry’s the perfect fit for the position,” Saban said following the team’s game against Vanderbilt. “He’s very instinctive, he’s a great communicator, he’s a signal caller. I think he makes everybody around him play better because he’s very instinctive, he understands, very football-savvy, understands exactly how he’s supposed to fit on the runs and ends up in the right place.”
Through four games To’oto’o has recorded 23 total tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack. As the leader of the defense, he commands a star-studded group that Pittman continued to praise.
“Obviously, you mentioned, Will (Anderson), and I think To’oto’o is one of those guys. Byron Young, Moody, Hellams, Battle. They’ve got a lot of guys that can ruin your game plan. You just go through that and you have a base game plan and you better have an answer for their freakish-type athletes and players. They’ve got so many of them, it’s hard to do, but certainly, you try to eliminate the guys that can change the outcome of the game.
“We know where they’re gonna line up, just like everybody who plays them. The problem is blocking them and running past them. So we have our specifics for that, but other than that, they’ve been the same type of defense for years. It’s just the players have been different.”
The Razorbacks will enter Saturday’s game as 17.5-point underdogs to the defending SEC Champions. Although Pittman has his team on the right path, he knows the team must play mistake-free football against Alabama’s defense in order to hang around in the matchup.
“They’re just a really good team that you can’t make mistakes against because if you do, they’re like piranhas,” Pittman said. “They feast on that. I’ve played them several, several times, and they’re always well-coached and disciplined. They don’t beat themselves.
“They obviously have great athletes. But I think a big key is going into the game believing you can win. I think there’s not a whole lot of teams in the country that go into a game thinking they can beat Alabama. I may be wrong. There’s some, but there’s not a bunch. You have to have that belief, and then you have a chance. If you can get a whole team full of guys that believe they can win then you have a chance.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
