What does everyone think of Mel Tucker as DC?

Pruitt couldn't stop the run. That's really all I remember about him.

I was really hoping that Kirby could/would retain Pruitt for at least one more season. But Tucker brings years of defensive experience, and Saban must really think a lot of him. One of the biggest reasons I wanted Pruitt back is so that we could have continuation stability on at least one side of the ball. Now we're changing systems all the way around. I don't think it will be as drastic as Grantham/Pruitt, but there will be growing pains. Just judging from why we'll see from the East, we really need some run stoppers.

We were 7th in yards in overall defense and averaged less then 150 ypg on the ground. What we couldn't stop was the 2nd and 3rd and LONG rushes. Slice it any way you want, but our defense finished 8th in scoring and 7th in yards in the country. I think we actually finished #1 in pass play defense. Our offense was like 80th, despite an offensive minded coach with a QB that broke an insane record and only threw 2 picks with above a 60% completion percentage.

ETA: I'm excited about the future and who knows what will happen, but the last couple years were weird And have included many suspensions/injuries/etc that ruined it

His numbers look good but the Florida and Ga Southern games were embarrassing. I'll not disagree that he is a good DC though.

Pruitt could not stop off tackle plays either. Treon Harris is still running.

I like Pruitt, but there is no way CKS could've kept him. It would have divided the team into two camps/loyalties. CKS had to cut him loose and bring in his own guy. Ended up not hurting us on the recruiting trail which is a major miracle.

As to Mel Tucker, we won't know for sure until we're well into the season. But it'll be Kirby's defense, not Tucker's, so I think we'll be fine.

The sense of comfort I believe we all have at least a little of is due to Smart rather than Tucker. If they are of like minds, and I believe they are, then with Smart's oversight we should be fine IMO.

I am more much more worried about QB and Oline.

I think Mel will do fine with Kirby leading the way. Pruitt wss like a cancer growth on your pecker. At first, we were like, wow our pecker's bigger, this is awesome. Then we were like, oh crap that's cancer.

That makes too much sense

Ya I mean the East was absolute garbage last year. The only descent offenses we faced were Alabama and Tenn and we lost both games. The Ga Southern game could have been a major embarrassment as well. IMO we finished with a better then desrved defense ranking purely based on the East had almost no teams worth a shite.

Hell even Penn State was close to coming back on our vaunted top 5 passing D.

I wasn't sold on our defense last year cause when we needed them to step up and keep us in games, for the most part, they didn't. I mean the FL game is the biggest example...WTF