Bryce Young set to prove himself as he takes over for Mac Jones at Alabama
Nick Saban is beginning to grow tired of the complaints surrounding his defense.
Don’t get him wrong, the head coach realizes that things weren’t perfect last season. Defensive breakdowns against Ole Miss and Florida won’t soon be forgotten. However, Saban isn’t ready to hit the panic button just yet.
“I know everybody complains about the defense, but we were like first in the SEC in points allowed and we were 13th in the country in points allowed,” Saban said. “So I think what people visualize as good defense is a little bit different now than it used to be.”
Saban is correct in both his observations. Alabama did indeed rank No. 13 in scoring defense, allowing 19.4 points per game. No SEC defense was higher as Georgia came in a hair behind at No. 16, allowing an even 20 points per contest.
However, a dive into last season’s stat book isn’t always as kind. For example, Alabama ranked No. 77 in the nation (seventh in the SEC) in opposing third-down percentage, allowing its opponents to convert at a 41.5 percent success rate.
Alabama allowed opponents to convert on 50 percent or more of their third downs in five of its 13 games. Three of those instances came at the beginning of the season as the Tide’s young defense was still looking to find its footing. While things improved for a stretch over the middle of the season, Alabama’s struggles resurfaced again in the postseason as it allowed Florida, Notre Dame and Ohio State to go a combined 22 of 41 (53.65 percent) on third down.
Saban circled that issue Wednesday in his assessment of his defense.
“Getting off the field on third down was an issue for us a year ago,” he said. “Whether it's a combination of how we pressure, how we cover – whatever. Some of that starts with even when it was second-and-long, we did a really poor job of making it third-and-long. It would become third and very manageable for the offense.
“This whole idea of getting off the field and not giving the other team more opportunities to have chances to make plays, I think that’s the single most obvious thing that we need to improve on.”
Saban went on to pick out other flaws. The head coach said he feels the run defense could have been better while pointing out that a few missed assignments were punished by big plays early in the season. That being said, the Tide still managed to hold its own en route to an undefeated record.
Those hoping for the glory days of 2011 when Alabama led the nation in almost every defensive category while holding its opponents to 8.2 points per game shouldn’t hold their breath. Even Saban, whose defenses built Alabama’s dynasty, admits the days of that type of defensive dominance are over.
“People are not giving up eight points a game anymore,” Saban said. “I’ve talked a lot about how people take advantage of the rules that we have in college football and how they favor the offense and how it’s very difficult to play really good defense now. We keep tweaking, we keep working.”
Still, if you move past previous comparisons, this year’s Alabama defense has a chance to be something special in its own right as the Tide loses just three starters from last year’s squad.
While Alabama will be without last year’s sacks leader in Christian Barmore, it returns one of the nation’s most fearsome front sevens which features an elite pass-rushing duo in Christopher Allen and Will Anderson Jr.
Dylan Moses isn’t around to quarterback the defense at Mike linebacker. However, Saban expressed confidence in Christian Harris, Jaylen Moody and Shane Lee, who will all rotate signal-calling duties this spring.
“We’re trying to create diversity in players, not trying to give you an answer so you can write about who the starter is everywhere,” Saban quipped. “And then we’ll figure out at the end of spring and the fall camp, OK this is the best way for us to play.”
As for the secondary, Alabama loses a potential first-round pick in Patrick Surtain II but brings back the rest of its starting cast along with a slew of potential breakout talent.
“I think we have a little more experience coming back on defense, which will probably help us,” Saban said. “I see a lot more players out there that last year at this time, we had seven or eight new guys and four out of five in the secondary. Now we only lost one guy in the back end and one linebacker and one down guy.
“We have a lot of guys that have a lot of playing time, so they should be a lot more confident.”
