The change Alabama made to not have a repeat of Indiana, per former Tide player

Former Alabama football quarterback AJ McCarron feels the Crimson Tide added more weight upfront on defense to avoid a repeat of the Rose Bowl.

Indiana beat the Tide 38-3 in the Rose Bowl en route to winning the National Championship. The Hoosiers ran through Alabama’s defense during the win. Indiana finished the game with 407 total yards, and 215 of those yards came on the ground.

McCarron said he feels that performance forced Alabama to rethink its defensive front during a recent episode of “The Dynasty Podcast.”

“I think the best part about this is the size that we added on the D-line,” McCarron said. “I mean, these are some big-ass dudes. They sound like tackles and guards, to be honest with you. I mean, 6’5″, 300 pounds, 6’5″, 313, 6’4″, 302. I think DeBoer and Kane and this defensive staff went in and said, “We gotta get bigger up front and can’t allow an Indiana 2.0 to happen again.”

Alabama’s defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has went into detail about the Tide’s focus on adding weight to its defensive front.

“Big bodies matter. Mass kicks ass,” Wommack said. “When you have big frames that have length and being able to strike people, but also when they’re getting a double team, just sheer mass matters. The truth is, we got moved around some the last two years here.”

Alabama’s defensive front has garnered a lot of praise throughout fall camp.