Alabama’s defense has had one major problem since 2018: not having the right personnel in critical moments.
Nick Saban has shown loyalty to his leadership council, but not to the players that deserve to be on the field.
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Jaylen Moody, a senior inside linebacker, is a player on the short end of the stick. He rarely got marquee opportunities in his career; however, Moody has been impactful when his number is called. He makes big tackles, forces fumbles, sticks his nose in to stop running backs, and plays coverage. As a former three-star from South Carolina, he earned the starting job at weakside “Will” linebacker in fall camp and has played well all season. Moody did not play versus Texas A&M because of a bruised kidney, but he got cleared for the Tennessee game and practiced all week. He did not play at all against the Volunteers as Pete Golding (Alabama’s defensive coordinator) had redshirt freshman Deontae Lawson in Moody’s spot. People were wondering about where Moody could have been. After not seeing him in action, one of Moody’s high school coaches expressed his frustration.
*Coach Mabry speaks about Jaylen Moody and Alabama’s personnel issues at the 1:05:10 mark
“There is a sense of entitlement on this team,” Coach Mabry said Monday via In My Own Words.
“Not just off the field, but on the field. I look around and say ‘where are those M’Fers at?’ Because they are not playing on defense right now. I think Marvin Constant said something the other day after the game. He said your personality on defense is determined by your Mike linebacker. Now, you know what my feeling is on this, and I will be straight up. How many bad performances can we have from a player and still throw him out there? When I look at this team, I think we did some things schematically that put us in some bad predicaments. I am not letting the coordinators off the hook, but I don’t think that is the problem. They have the personnel, but they [Alabama] are too loyal to some of these kids who are not stepping up to the plate and making it happen.”
Mabry was interested in knowing how did Moody not get into the Tennessee game.
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“That made no sense to me,” Mabry said. “I know they love Deontae Lawson, but Moody is the best inside linebacker on that team. He is the guy that will strike your cap and your butt. What they have done with him is absolutely an atrocity. He is one of my guys, but I don’t understand what the team is doing. 10 [Henry To’oto’o] ain’t the one. I don’t know how many games we need to watch, these big games where he gets small, but for him to get on and talk afterward on the news talking about we are coming back? No son. Bro, you could do it and have not gotten it done. My thing is the standard is not there because the coaches are not making the standard the way it’s supposed to be. They are showing too much preferential treatment to players. When you bring a kid in, and I am not picking on this kid specifically, but any transfer that comes in they don’t know the standard. They do not know the standard. They come in and get a starting position at Alabama at inside linebacker and never be in pads? You were promised the job. This is indicative of what’s going on in the program. I know I have a kid there right now, but I will be upfront with you. I will share some information. He went in on Sunday and went off on Golding. He said ‘we need M’Fers on the team, and I am one of them. When it comes down to it, the coaching staff has a personnel issue and they don’t have guts. When you hype a kid up and he’s not performing, there is a good place for him called the bench. When he can go out there and play whether he is a poor performer or not, guess what we got, a poor performance. This is not the first poor performance. There are kids on the sideline that need to be in the game, but this is not making sense to me.”
Mabry finished his rant by discussing more of why Moody should play more.
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“That No. 42 does not have a vehicle,” Mabry said. “He walks to school every day. He does not have a NIL deal. His NIL deal is to play, and those are the guys I want on the team. I don’t want any choir boys. I want the guys who are going to get it done.”
Moody has gotten it done all year for Alabama. He has 33 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks.
Moody puts Alabama fans in the mind frame of Rolando McClain, Dont’a Hightower, C.J. Mosley, Reggie Ragland, Reuben Foster, Rashaan Evans, and Shaun Dion Hamilton. It was a crime not having him on the field against Tennessee.
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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.
