Next Year’s Team - Stacked

Irv Smith and Mack Wilson might think about the NFL, in addition to the maybes you already have listed. And who knows what Jalen is thinking about doing.

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DL: Davis (maybe)

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Not sure if good.

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LB: Wilson

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Not sure if good.

More experienced players is a good thing as the last two years have shown.

LORD JESUS please make Mack go. I had such high expectations for that clown.

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Why wouldn’t it be good?

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The experience aspect is good, but neither of those guys had what I would call a "good year."

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stomp

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So what's the difference. Nick needs to fix our D. Whether it's the coaches, players, or both.

People on here talk about opportunities missed on offense, Dabo could've called the score.

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Honestly, that defense looks as weak or weaker than this season. There’s no monsters in that group. Only change is we are losing Q

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And losing Miller.

But getting Lewis and Allen at LB back and hopefully Diggs at CB.

I tend to agree with you. I'm looking at that defense and thinking it looks like another pretty good but not elite defense. I guess the hope is that (1) remain injury free as the defense has been demolished by injuries the last two years (2) the second and third year starters become on the field leaders which has been severely lacking and (3) there are some undiscovered studs/alphas waiting in the wings (always a possibility with the way Bama has recruited).

So there is hope, but right now my fear is this is just another pretty good but not NC caliber defense.

Underlying all of this is my skepticism that we have the right defensive coaching staff. We need to change some things and as good as Saban is EVERY HC needs to have assistants who bring innovation, adjustments, and ability to coach em up to the table. Lupoi and company need to make huge strides next year.

This was easily the worst defense I've seen Bama field under Saban. R. Davis was meh the whole year (and an absolute lunatic), Buggs' performance severely declined in the last 1/3 of the season (he probably wasn't healthy, but still, he was out there playing), and Quinnen was the only playmaker on the DLine this year.

The linebackers were bad bad bad. Moses and Wilson are simply not the thumpers we have had in the past. They can't shoot a gap to save their lives, were constantly out of position, and were god awful at taking on blocks/shedding them. Yes, we have been spoiled throughout Saban's tenure with top notch linebacker play (literally multiple All Americans). Moses and Mack are great athletes, but I sincerely do not know if they have the instincts or the mean streak to become what we have been accustomed to at the ILB position.

OLB was decimated with injury so they get a pass for this year. It is hard to come back from losing Lewis/Allen and still ask for a consistent pass rush.

The defensive backs feasted off of bad offenses early on in the season. Saivion Smith is laughably bad. On past defenses, the corners made tackles, could set the edge and embraced contact WAY more so than SS4 and PS2. That was one of the biggest things I noticed about the cornerbacks all year long, and that is how much they would shy away from contact. Thankfully, Surtain is young and I think he will develop into an elite cornerback. His coverage skills were good all year long (minus one game vs. OU) and I think the physicality will come with experience and age.

The safeties were so-so. They were no Landon Collins, HaHa, Eddie Jackson, or Barron (hell or even Robert Lester). They started off hot vs. bad teams but their ball skills were severely lacking come playoff time. Lots of missed int's, blown coverages, trying to over compensate for the other DBs and messing up on their own assignments. If Thompson gets a first round grade he has to go, but I think another year of development will help his game (but that development might have to come from the NFL, as I don't know how much more college ball can do for him)

All in all, while the offense pretty much shite the bed with only 16 points, this defense was not on par with what we were used to (and many of the posters here pointed that out throughout the season). The defenses of old would pretty much keep us in every game we played in. Did this defense stop Clemson a single time in Quarters 2, 3 and 4?? That puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the offense

/rant

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So what's the difference. Nick needs to fix our D. Whether it's the coaches, players, or both.

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It's the players. They are not that good and have nobody to develop them because the staff is overloaded with recruiters as opposed to coaches who can develop talent.