Observations from Alabama DC Pete Golding's press conference

Things didn’t always go to plan during Pete Golding’s first season in charge of Alabama’s defense. The defensive coordinator was dealt two major injuries in last year’s fall camp and ultimately failed to organize an inexperienced unit wich unraveled in losses to LSU and Auburn.

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Alabama allowed 18.6 points per game last season, its highest total since Nick Saban’s first year in 2007. During a Thursday night Zoom call with reporters, Golding broke down his plans for improvement while updating the progress of the Tide’s returning defense.

Here’s what we learned from the coordinator’s annual preseason press conference.

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Golding stated multiple times that he came to Alabama to coach the best defense in the country. Trial No. 1 was a long way off from that last season. The Tide ranked outside the top 20 in total defense (324.4 yards allowed per game) for the first time in more than a decade while finishing tied for No. 43 in sacks (32), tied for No. 74 in opponent’s red zone conversion percentage (84.38) and tied for No. 114 in penalties committed (7.3 per game).

While some of those deficiencies stemmed from season-ending injuries to Dylan Moses, Joshua McMillon and LaBryan Ray, Golding owned up to the poor end product, stating he didn’t do a good enough job of putting his players in a position to be successful on the field.

“Bottom line, that’s on me. That ain’t on nobody else,” Golding said. “I’m the defensive coordinator. I’m responsible for the defense, so I’ve got to do a better job of getting them prepared and getting those guys knowing what to do and playing fast.”

Not too long ago, Golding was considered one of the brightest young minds in coaching. That knowledge wasn’t lost last year but rather misused. As Golding alluded to Thursday, the best drawn up plays and coverages mean little when the players charged with executing them aren’t confident in their responsibilities.

“I coached my ass off, and I prepared them as best as I could and all that,” Golding said. “But looking back at it, it’s understanding, hey, who’s our personnel? What have we got? How can simplify this thing to let these kids play fast, run? And the biggest thing, how can we eliminate explosive plays, mental errors and still be disruptive?... Looking back, to me, it’s the missed tackle, the mental errors, right, and then the lack of discipline, right, third-down penalties and things like that.

“As a coach, I mean, that makes you sick, and you feel like that’s something you should be able to control. So, I’ve got to do a better job in meetings and at practice and everything else. That is not acceptable. You’re either coaching it or allowing it to happen.”

While Alabama had its spring camp wiped out by the pandemic, Golding was able to communicate with his players through virtual meetings where he could delve into defensive concepts. Three practices into fall camp, he says he’s encouraged by the progress his unit made from a learning standpoint this offseason.

“Where we’re at from a mental standpoint with our players,” he said. “I think we’re way ahead from a mental standpoint than we’ve ever been.”

A day before suffering his season-ending ending ACL injury last fall, Moses portrayed the type of leadership that was often missing on last season’s defense. After observing a dip in standard from one of his teammates during practice, the starting linebacker took charge, grabbing the player by the facemask while reminding him, “that’s not how we do it here.”

“We’re a young room, and they wanted somebody to be able to do that for them and to be able to follow,” Golding recalled. “And that was the first time since I’ve been here that I really saw him wear his emotions on his sleeve and then just pour it out. He came to my office after that practice, I said, ‘Dylan, that’s it, man. That is it. You busted your butt and you’ve done everything you’re supposed to do up to this point.' But if he doesn’t, it don’t matter. You’ve got to bring the other 10 guys with you and you’ve got to get them invested with you. It was just unfortunate for him, that next day is when he had the injury.”

After electing to forgo the NFL draft this offseason, Moses spoke to reporters earlier this week, stating he’s looking to “put a punctuation on the back end of my career here at Alabama.” From what Golding has seen from the redshirt junior over the past few months, he believes he will do just that.

“This offseason, I’m telling you what, in those Zooms, he had his pen and paper out every day, getting the freshmen on there, quizzing them, sending them tests,” Golding said. “When he decided to come back, it was that Dylan I saw that day after practice, and he said, ‘If I’m going to come back, I’m all in, and I’m going to bring everybody with me.’ So, that’s been really, really awesome to see, and I wish him nothing but the best.”

Alabama is looking to replace four of its five starters from last season’s nickel secondary. While Golding isn’t ready to release a depth chart just yet, he did provide a hint at how his unit could look at the back end this year.

“I think the big thing in this conference and within this defense, we need to have two corners that can lock it down, and I think that’s something that Patrick (Surtain II) and Josh (Jobe) should be able to do for us and they’ve done well up to this point,” Golding said. “And then for us, it’s find that next best one to be able to bring to the Star position and cover those slots that are a big part of multiple offenses and those guys can run in this league. So we’ve definitely got to find a Star.”

Golding mentioned junior college transfer Ronald Williams Jr. as a possibility at the Star position. Alabama has also given redshirt sophomore Jalyn Armour-Davis first-team reps at inside corner this offseason.

As for the safety positions, Golding signaled out sophomore Jordan Battle and redshirt junior Daniel Wright as early leaders while stating the Tide has nice depth at the position.

“I think we got a couple freshmen that I think you’ll see early,” Golding said. “I think we’ll have to do a good job of rolling those guys. I think like in anything, finding something they can do. I think especially this year, let’s not look at what they can’t do, let’s look at what they can do. Let’s put them in that situation. So if they’re not good at this, let’s not ask them to do that. Let’s base a package, a coverage, whatever it is – especially this year with the depth – to find something, whether it’s a younger player or older player, that he excels at.”

As Alabama looks to sort things out in the secondary, it will also need to replace its top two pass rushers in Anfernee Jennings and Terrell Lewis. Last season, that duo combined for 14 sacks and 24 tackles for a loss. By comparison, the Tide’s top two returning pass rushers this year — Christopher Allen and Ben Davis — have a combined 1.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for a loss over a combined seven years with the program.

Still, Golding is optimistic when discussing the veteran duo, stating that both Allen and Davis have made significant strides in their leadership.

“They’ve worked their rear ends off, they’ve been in here studying, they’ve worked with the young guys on Zoom,” Golding said. “It’s really nice right now, those two guys are like coaches on the field. That’s been a big, big help to those young guys in that room that are talented, that can play. And for them to take them under their wing has been really nice. Both of them have a lot of experience, have played the position a long time, obviously when you’re young in the secondary or at least inexperienced in the secondary, got to be able to create some pass rush.”

Golding alluded that Allen and Davis will primarily be used on base formations with other players coming in as pass-rushing specialists on third downs. Alabama should have no shortage of talent to work with as it brings in four Rivals100 pass rushers in freshmen William Anderson Jr., Chris Braswell, Drew Sanders and Quandarrius Robinson.

“Some of these young guys might be really good edge pass rushers, DPRs, so to say, on third down,” Golding said. “We need to be able to find some package to let them guys do that. And no, we’re not going to ask them to learn the whole dime rabbits package and the whole nickel rabbits package, because they’re not gonna have the ability to do that this early.”