Let’s talk Football - 2020 Defense

What are your expectations for the 2020 defense?

Pre-COVID: I expected the defense to make huge strides from last year. With the quality depth we gain from the 2019 recruiting class, this should rejuvenate that drive to get better every day that we seemed to lack in 2018 and more so in 2019. I’m not sure about then numbers, but from the eye test, we seemed to make very little progress as a defense from the start of last year to the end. Part of that could be attributed to scheme (wrong players in the wrong spots), but I think a lot of it had to do with the starters not being pushed by younger guys hungry for playing time (yes, I know, our starters were those younger guys). My hope is that the elite talent coming in will push the older guys to elevate their game or get passed up by guys that can make an impact.

With COVID: progress will be made, and all the points above still stand, but to a lesser degree due to less practice time and tune up games.

How do you see this defense comparing to previous Saban defenses?

Not that this is some relevant metric, but I like to compare our own defenses to each other for shits and gigs. I think this defense has the potential to be on the same, or close, level of the 2017 unit by year end. I think the 2017 defense was pretty underrated - we had some absolute DAWGS on that unit. How we gave up so many points to Miss. St. and lost to Auburn that year, even with Jalen at QB, baffles me.

I should clarify that I think the maximum potential of this years defense is 2017. I don’t think we have the right mix of talent and experience just quite yet to surpass the 2017 defense.

Where do you see us ranking among other SEC defenses?

As of this moment, UGA is the gold standard as far as defense is concerned in the SEC. LSU will have a damn good squad as well. I’m not saying I don’t buy the UGA defensive hype - they proved to be very good last year - but LSU was a wide open dropped walk in touchdown away from hanging at least 44 on them last year(I hate playing the ‘but if..’ game, but it’s true), and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Bama and/or LSU have as good of defenses as UGA next year. I don’t really have a prediction of where we finish rankings wise because there are still so many question marks from last year. The talent is there (at least on paper), but obviously so much more goes into it than that.

Thoughts on specific units

DEFENSIVE LINE:

NEED Labryan Ray to come back STRONG. Talent appears to be there with him, but I’m a little concerned about the long term impact of his injury.

Overall I think the DLine should be solid-to-very good. Lots of invaluable experience gained last year from guys that I expect to be very good players for us. My breakout player is Byron Young. That dude’s got country boy strength and was very highly recruited by elite teams for a reason. I hope to see Eboigbe slimmed down and more explosive - like he was in high school. Barmore seems to be headed in the right direction, especially from an attitude standpoint - I think it’s his time to be the next freak on the DL (not exactly a groundbreaking take, but yea.. he good). I think a rotation of Dale/Mathis will be very solid in the run game, and Tim Smith to come in somewhat frequently to keep OLs off balance - that guy is a freak of nature; if you haven’t watched his highlights, do it.


LINEBACKERS:

ILB:

We all know Dylan Moses - veteran and freak of nature. Hopefully his instincts have improved - if they have, first or high second (minimum) round pick.

I think Christian Harris holds the other ILB spot. To me, he made the most improvement on the entire defense last year. He was the best player on the defense in then Michigan game last year. Great measureables, great closing speed, and unbelievable instincts for a guy who played DB in high school. He will be too good to keep off the field. Thank you Baton Rouge for these two.

I think we will have solid depth with Shane Lee and McMillon back. Shane, as discussed ad nauseam, needs to lose some weight. Ballou and Rhea, from all reports, will do wonders for this program. Does anyone know the status of Ale Kaho’s injury? I was really looking forward to seeing him play significant minutes this year. Of the freshman coming in, I expect Demouey Kennedy to get a small portion of meaningful snaps - this kids gonna be very very good. Clearly he needs to put on a little bit of muscle mass, but once that happens.. watch out.

OLB:

This is the position battle that is most intriguing to me. Chris Allen is a solid player, and King Mwikuta has made strides apparently, but these freshmen coming in.. oh man. I feel like Kevin Harris II is getting a little over looked, but it’s going to be extremely difficult to hold off Will Anderson and Drew Sanders for playing time. If the veterans can hold off these young dogs, we should have the best OLB unit we’ve ever had under Saban. And that’s before even talking about Quandarius Robinson and Chris Braswell.

Ultimately, I think it will play out with Chris Allen starting and playing his way into a mid round draft pick, with King on the other edge providing good production. The young studs will play a lot and Will Anderson will be one of the most disruptive guys on our team - he and Barmore will cause hell for opposing OLs and QBs.

SECONDARY:

Surtain is Surtain. He will ball out this year and jump to the NFL with a high draft grade. Battle has one safety spot and will be a baller - those south Florida kids we recruit hard rarely do not pan out.

The other outside corner spot I think will go to Jobe and he should be a solid player. I have him breaking out this year and will surprise a lot of people. The other safety spot will be a good position battle, but I think Hellams takes it from Daniel Wright. I think Brian Branch will get significant minutes too. The fifth DB is probably the biggest toss up of this group, and if I had to predict, I’d say Jalyn Armour Davis is the choice here. We will have solid depth back here and they should all be pushing each other significantly for playing time. I think we see a lot of different rotations for the first few games, per usual, until we find what works.

Losing Scooby Carter sucks. Wish he had gotten his head straight because his talent is certainly there.


That’s all I’ve got. Not too much groundbreaking stuff, just some thoughts. I’m praying this whole COVID thing passes because I’m starving for football. Would love to hear others’ opinions.

RTR