BamaInsider Roundtable: Defensive Breakout Player (Part 3)
Leading into Alabama's 2017 Football Camp, the Staff at BamaInsider.com along with one selected premium subscriber participated in roundtable answering five questions pertaining to Alabama Football. Over the next five days, we’ll release the series.
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Question: Who is your breakout defensive player for the 2017 season?
Andrew Bone (BamaInsider Recruiting Analyst) Isaiah Buggs. Alabama lost plenty of talent on the defensive side of the ball, especially on the defensive line. Alabama also lost two key players in leadership roles on the defensive line- Jonathan Allen and Dalvin Tomlinson. Buggs is one of the top junior college transfers in the country. He looked great during spring practice. Alabama needs Buggs to have a great season with the lack of depth on the defensive front.
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Tony Tsoukalas (BamaInsider Team Writer) My breakout defensive player this season is Isaiah Buggs. The five-star JUCO defensive lineman hasn’t had quite the same hype as senior Da’Shawn Hand, who will also be stepping into a starting role this season. However, Buggs put together an impressive spring and looks to be a capable replacement for the role filled by Dalvin Tomlinson last season.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban said the 6-foot-5, 293-pound defensive lineman still has to work on his discipline instead of always chasing after the big play. Although, once Buggs gets familiar with what Alabama coaches want him to do, he’ll be a force.
Kyle Henderson (BamaInsider Managing Editor) I’ll go with a defensive lineman as well, but since the staff and Diego already went with Isaiah Buggs, I’ll go with Da’Shawn Hand. The 6-foot-4, 282-pound senior out of Woodbridge, Virginia has some big shoes to fill with the Crimson Tide losing Jonathan Allen and Dalvin Tomlinson, but Hand looked exceptional this past spring and besides being absolutely yoked, he moves very well off the football and will be able to be both a good run stopper as well as be able to get to the quarterback. Along with Buggs, Hand really did impress me as well as other defensive linemen like Raekwon Davis, Quinnen Williams, Joshua Fraizer, and of course Da’Ron Payne. Plenty of depth in this area, but if I had to pick a breakout defensive lineman, I really feel Hand will make a big impact immediately.
Diego Delgado (Selected Premium Subscriber asked to contribute) There are so many choices here but the safe and easy pick is Isaiah Buggs. He terrorized the offense in the spring while slightly out of shape and proved to be legit as both a run stopper and pass rusher. Honorable mention goes to Terrell Lewis who has been tagged as a 1st round talent by the Tide staff.
Part four coming tomorrow
BamaInsider Roundtable: Offensive Breakout Player (Part 2)
BamaInsider Roundtable: Ranking Alabama's position groups (Part 1)
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