An interesting stat for Reuben Foster this season, with a cameo by SDH

Through 7 games, Reuben has 41 tackles, good for 5.86 a game.

This is the lowest per game average our leading tackler has had in a long time. I'm not exactly sure how long, I'm just making this quick and using cfbstats.com and that only goes as far back as 2009.

Since 2008, this is where Reuben Foster's average would rank on each team:

2008: 3rd
2009: 2nd
2010: 2nd
2011: 2nd
2012: 2nd
2013: 2nd
2014: 4th
2015: 2nd

Now, by no means are those bad spots. It's just odd. He always seems to be around the ball, yet his tackle numbers are lower than one would expect. I certainly think he has the most upside and athletic ability of any of our Middle Linebackers under Saban. And he's playing at an elite level.

We could possibly attribute his lower (compared to other leading tacklers) tackle numbers to the number of snaps our defense plays, but almost all of our defenses under Saban get off the field easily.

Another possibility? Shaun Hamilton. Now, I've always thought SDH was the next Nico Johnson or Trey DePriest. Obviously he's a different type of player, but I was thinking a guy who starts for 3/4 years next to the studs and is consistently solid. But he only has 1 less tackle than Foster, more solo tackles, more tackles for loss (7.5 compared to 4 for Reuben), and is credited with 0.5 a sack more. That said, Reuben is more active in the passing game with a couple of passes broken up and a few QB hurries. I'm sure he has a good number of QB hits as well.

Hamilton is coming into his own. Both of our inside backers (all 3 if you include Evans) fly around the field.