Our defense will return to an elite level

I'd like to see what Reuben Foster and Rashaan Evans have to offer. BTW, is Dee Liner ever going to play?

I think both can play the gap but only Evans would have the ability to cover like we would need. Liner should find his way into the rotation, hopefully. With our recent recruiting I think we should put one of our bulkier safeties in the middle on dime packages

I have no doubt about it. We return a crazy amount of experience in the front 7, and all of our Corners.

We definitely want Ragland to stay though. We don't "need" him to, but he would give the D a huge boost.

I'm starting to wonder if Reuben will live up to the hype. I don't like him against spread teams unless he's blitzing, and I don't know if he's even a sideline-sideline guy against the run. I think he's strictly a between the tackles run defender and a blitzer, but I need to see more before I know that to be true.

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Our defense will return to an elite level

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Maybe, maybe not...spread offenses have a pretty good grasp of our D now and the better ones are starting to consistently beat us on the perimeter. We're gonna have to adapt and do something different to throw 'em off. While I think we have the talent to do so on the DL, not so sure 'bout our LBs and DBs for next year. The DL is very deep but we're thin at LB even if Ragland comes back. Safeties we'll be very thin (experience wise) as we lose Collins, Perry, and Williams. We'll have our best CB back in Jones (who's also the smallest) but, while the others have potential, they're unproven as yet...

I think the key will be whether we have the talent/ability/depth to be able to run multiple defenses and be unconventional at times. We're gonna have to be multiple enough to be able to be unconventional against the good spread teams but still be conventional against teams that can pound it like LSU.

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I think we all need to accept that for the forseeable future, we won't be containing offenses like we could a few years ago. That's just the nature of the beast right now. Offenses are becoming too dynamic.

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I see what you are saying, and while I agree that it has something to do with it, letting a QB connect for 30+ yards with a WR downfield on third down is just bad defense. Really has little to do with the opposing offense. It was mindblowing how many times that happened this year.

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It just seems like we've had a huge dropoff in talent at that position.

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Yeah, early departures don't help. I feel like Cyrus is up to par, but Eddie was not this year, and we just did not have anyone that could relieve him. However, I feel like Eddie will bounce back, because he has the tools to be great.

As far as talent at CB position, we have a lot. They are just young. I don't feel like we are hurting there.

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That said, our secondary has not been up to our standards since 2012. I'm not a roster guru or numbers guy, but IMO none of our current DBs would start over anyone we had from 2008-2011/12. It just seems like we've had a huge dropoff in talent at that position.

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I agree with this and disagree with the title. As the OP mentioned, previous elite defenses were studded and this team had not true studs.

More importantly, the 2009 and 2011 defenses weren't really tested. 2009 Florida was considerably worse than 2008 Florida. Alabama played Texas's backup QB.

2011 Alabama did not play any good, balanced offenses. Arkansas was the only good offense the team played, but they could not run the ball. LSU could not pass the ball. We will never know how 2011 Alabama would have fared with 2011 LSU's schedule. I occasionally mention that stats are dependent upon competition, and that applies to Alabama too.

The past 2 defenses had tougher competition and less talent. It's not so much that offenses are ahead of the game as it that flaws in the program's defense are finally being exposed because Alabama is actually playing against great offenses now.

Oregon and 2012-2013 Stanford didn't have much trouble defending modern and pro-style offenses.

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2011 Alabama did not play any good, balanced offenses. Arkansas was the only good offense the team played, but they could not run the ball. LSU could not pass the ball. We will never know how 2011 Alabama would have fared with 2011 LSU's schedule. I occasionally mention that stats are dependent upon competition, and that applies to Alabama too.

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That's a really good point. The 2011 Alabama Defense is GOAT but they really never faced an offense like the current group has. Now that defense would do a much better job at shutting down these offenses we're struggling with because it had so much talent but it wouldn't be the brick wall it was in 2011. The speed on that D was unmatched and appears to be one of the elements we're missing right now. I think LSU's defense that year had a bunch of ballhawks that could make plays. Our defense was just immovable.

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More importantly, the 2009 and 2011 defenses weren't really tested.

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We played 3 top 20 offenses in '09 (UF #6, AU #16, Arky #20). I agree with you 'bout 2011 (we played NO top 20 offenses), highest was Arky at 29) but our 2009 defense was a different story, at least in the quality of offenses we played...

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2009 Florida was considerably worse than 2008 Florida.

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Disagree. UF was 6th in total offense in 2009 while they were 15th in total offense in 2008...they were also 4th in total defense in '09 while they were 9th in '08...don't see any way that can be accurately described as "considerably worse"...

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2011 would shut down any offense. I don't wanna hear that "they weren't tested"

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Well, I think 2011 was a great defense but I can't argue much 'bout them being tested...I read somewhere that the next best offense they played after Arky (#29) that year was ranked in the 70's (South Carolina, I think). I think they'd have done well against most offenses that year, but they didn't get the chance as that was just the way the schedule fell...

However, one offense that they didn't shut down was Georgia Southern. Southern was the only team that scored more than 14 points against us and they rushed for more than 300 yards (and over 7 YPC). I recall Dont'a Hightower being asked, after the season, who had the best offense Bama faced that year and he didn't hesitate in answering "Georgia Southern"...