DJ Dale

He's a helluva roller skater.

There was a play on Saturday where the UT guard (or center, can’t remember exactly) stone-walled Dale with literally one arm. It was so sad - like when an older brother keeps the younger, smaller brother away from him by palming his head with one arm.

I think Dale’s arms are just too short to be an effective pass rusher, and on top of that he just simply does not possess brute strength like Payne.

Now Tim Smith on the other hand - BIG fan of this guy. I saw him take on a UT guard, drive him back, and with the other arm wrap up the ball carrier. Have not seen that in a loooong time.

A front of:
DT - Byron Young/Mathis
NT - Tim Smith
DE - Eboigbe/Ray

IMO has the most potential to be a pretty disruptive unit later in the year. Barmore needs to come in on certain downs/distances and Dale (unfortunately for him) should spell Tim Smith, along with Jamil Burroughs. We should also attack gaps rather than playing a 2-gap system because our boys just aren’t good enough to do that right now. Not to mention the stunts that are called do way more harm than they are helpful.

I’ll let y’all know what Saban thinks as soon as I run this by him Lol

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A front of: DT - Byron Young/Mathis NT - Tim Smith DE - Eboigbe/Ray

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Including 58 with that group and getting golding to stop calling all those selected slants.
We should be fine as they can all beat people in front of them.
That combined with Ray and 31 should give us what we need.
This combined with maybe using 29 hybrid S/lb in base nickle.But that would mean pulling one of Moses or # 8.

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I’ve been surprised by Mathis, honestly thought he would just be a guy for depth and he has flashed each game

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This shows that so far, there is no elite level talent on this D Line and we are down to praising guys for being a bit more than serviceable. It's unbelievable that it has come to this and shows recruiting ranking are worthless for the most part. It would be interesting to see where some of these guys rated on the coaches internal recruiting boards.

Did Dale ever fully get over that knee injury last year?

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and shows recruiting ranking are worthless for the most part.

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I’m not huge on “rankings,” but the DL recruits that are freshman and sophomores (and then Ray as well) were all heavily recruited by premier teams - so I wouldn’t say that there is “no elite talent” on the DL. There are certainly some busts or just not very good DL on the roster though.

The biggest issue, I think, is the lack of development combined with what they are being asked to do. It just seems that our game plan at every level of the defense is somehow too much for our guys to mentally handle. This leads to a somewhat conservative rush scheme to combat the inexperience/uncertainty about what to do on any given play.

For example, the DL mush rushes the majority of the time so the QB doesn’t run wild because the DBs (outside of Jobe and Surtain) and LBs aren’t sure of their responsibilities in coverage. Of course, this is just my theory on why they do it.

And then, when we try to call some more advanced stuff, you have coaches calling for stunts where one of the DL doesn’t fill the correct gap and leads to a 10 yard gain on the ground.

It also doesn’t help that our ILBs cannot effectively blitz up the middle whatsoever, nor are they very good tacklers. Christian Harris completely whiffed on two tackles behind the LOS that would have ended the Tennessee drive, Dylan Moses and others do not wrap up and drive through the ball carrier (so much “shoulder checking” type of tackling), lots of guys don’t know how to break down and tackle (thus overrunning the ball carrier/play wayyy too often), and are generally just slow on their reads (pre-snap motion and misdirection fools us almost every time) and are late to the ball carrier.

We have played better since halftime of the UGA game, but still not good enough. Every weekend will be a test for this defense, so they just have to keep getting better if they want a Natty. My one biggest concern is that there aren’t any mean-arse motherfrickers on this defense that will get the necessary improvement out of the other guys on defense each week in practice. Smitty is that guy on offense, Dickerson/Ekiyor/D. Brown also have a lot of fire, and I’m sure Mac does too. But, everyone on defense just seems quiet, keeps to themselves, and scared to say anything to one another - especially at the LBer and DB level. I saw DJ Dale get in Byron Young’s face once or twice against UTk, but it’s tough to command respect when you just aren’t that good at your own job. Barmore shows some passion but he is kind of a clown and seems more in it for him than the team (that very well might not be true, just seems like that to me). Mathis is really the only leader on the DL and he just doesn’t have the same intensity that Jon Allen had (not many do), or even that of A’Shawn or Jarran Reed.

Look at some of the guys in the past and how tough they were on the field, even with their own guys: Rashaan Evans, Reuben, Jon Allen, Reed, A’Shawn, Barrett Jones, AJ, Ronnie Harrison, Dre Kirk, Mark Barron, Upshaw, Hightower, Ryan Anderson, the list goes on. These guys were some mean arse dudes and we’re not afraid to let people know it. It takes a combination of guys like these, as well as those who lead by their actions, to have a great unit.

ETA: I’m ranting and didn’t realize how long this post was Lol.

TL;DR: we have talent; we need meaner players on Defense.

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Rashaan Evans, Reuben, Jon Allen, Reed, A’Shawn, Barrett Jones, AJ, Ronnie Harrison, Dre Kirk, Mark Barron, Upshaw, Hightower, Ryan Anderson, the list goes on. These guys were some mean arse dudes

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Totally agree. How many times did Kirkpatrick or Harrison come up on a bubble screen and absolutely blow somebody up?

And it's sort of become a meme at this point, but I still say Foster's kickoff-coverage hit on Fournette juiced that 2014 team to the overtime win.

We used to have the attitude that no one wanted to play us, now we're just hoping like hell to get off the field on third down.

Like I said in another thread, what I wouldn't give to have Orlando McCain back.

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Totally agree. How many times did Kirkpatrick or Harrison come up on a bubble screen and absolutely blow somebody up?

And it's sort of become a meme at this point, but I still say Foster's kickoff-coverage hit on Fournette juiced that 2014 team to the overtime win.

We used to have the attitude that no one wanted to play us, now we're just hoping like hell to get off the field on third down.

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I was happy to see Surtain do this during the UT game. Ran the WR right over.

For a freshman, I thought he played well last year until the injuries caught up with him. Looks to have regressed this year.