re: So is it safe to say Golding is staying?

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So what does Golding do with the injuries sustained on that '17' NC team? Win a title? Finish #1?

Or struggle to get to the QB, stop anything over the middle, struggle to tackle in space or anywhere else, or simply to get lined up properly?

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I'm not saying any of that.

I'm saying Golding was faced with bigger issues than Pruitt, i.e. playing TRUE FRESHMEN in the middle behind a crumbling Dline and having to do it for the entire season, and faced much more difficult offenses.

THEREFORE, the entire comparison is pointless and offers nothing.

But acting like the November version of the 2017 defense was good is rewriting history. We weren't good at all, particularly against the run.

If we had made the playoffs in 2019, and Golding had gotten most of the injured players back, we'd have been just fine. Hell, we were 6th in the SP+ without those guys. How good would we have been with them? First? Maybe...

You guys just want a non-player scapegoat and are rewriting history to get and keep one.

Mississippi State in 2017 had some awesome DEs with Simmons and Sweat

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As if never in history has Alabama or any other major university started freshmen high touted recruits at ILB.

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Honest question, can you find a team that won a national title/playoff/Top 5 team/etc that started 2 true freshman at ILB?

I actually looked for parallels when Moses went down back in August and literally found none, but I could have been missing something.

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You guys? You mean Bama fans, right? You got a pretty tough job this off-season. Ain't going to be easy being an apologist for the year Golding just had. And even harder given it's all on video. Just in case we misremember.

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Venables and Clemson gave up more yards to LSU than Alabama did while not having to deal with all the injuries.

Yet the prior year when they had a bunch of returning defensive players, they were able to hold Alabama to 16. So, did he just become the worse DC after being the best the prior year, or does experience and those things maybe matter when it comes to playing good defense - especially in the RPO age where defenses have trouble reading shite because of the lineman going downfield.

Who is your miracle DC that will do better?

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My stepdad was once engaged to Golding's mom.

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Pics?

Be a good way to make Saban appear younger.

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You guys? You mean Bama fans, right? You got a pretty tough job this off-season. Ain't going to be easy being an apologist for the year Golding just had. And even harder given it's all on video. Just in case we misremember.

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1) Nearly all of the Bama fans I know IRL are clear on the fact that our defensive woes a) weren't that bad, i.e. happened in spots, and b) were due to injuries. They are also clear that our loss to LSU was because they were a juggernaut, and they are clear that we lost to auburn because of 2 pick 6s. Put bluntly, I don't know anyone IRL who has a significant problem with Golding. This board however, is very different and has a special disease.

2) I'm not Golding apologist, as there is nothing to apologize for. I think Golding did a pretty good job overall. Getting that group to 6th overall SP (or anywhere near that number) with those injuries was impressive.

3) This video you speak of is clear as day to both of us, however we disagree on the WHY. That video can exist for thousands of years and we will always disagree on the WHY.

4) I guarantee that many will misremember. You're doing it now. Why would you stop in the future?

No offense to any particular person here, but a sizable percentage of fans on this board are simply loudmouths who don't really know the game deeply. These people only have a cursory understanding of the game, like thinking a good coach should create perfect players who execute perfectly like a video game each and every snap. And so yeah, I think the anti-Golding disease this board has is rooted in ignorance.

Golding has room to improve, but those who wholesale blame him for our defensive issues in 2019 are wrong, and in this case are advertising their stupidity to the world.

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The last 2 years have been frustrating to watch. We thought tosh wasn't cutting it but all the symptoms remain with Golding.

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I know, right. And we were so healthy and talented during this time, too - especially late in the season against the good teams. And we have recruited so well at ILB the last few years, too. We signed everyone we wanted. And look at the shitty offenses we've played the last few years. Can't everyone understand how offenses have gone backwards the last few years, and that we're living in the era of defensive dominance? I mean, how can they not see it?

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I mean the Auburn offense still scored 30 plus points. Jordan Hare magic sure but that offense was putrid before the IB.

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and they weren't that great against us either. They had 350 yards of total offense, went 5/13 on 3rd downs, and had less than 25 minutes t.o.p. Almost every significant play that was made by them that day was executed near perfectly. Their FG kicker, who sucked arse on FGs over 40 yards, went 4/4 on 40+ yard FGs.

I don't think that our D played lights out by any means, but they absolutely played good enough for us win. I just don't see that game as some kind of big red mark on Golding.

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putting our slowest linebacker in coverage over and over

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Shane Lee never had anything more that traditional Mike coverage responsibilities, which is the RB out of the backfield. Against the good teams late in the year, Lee was taken off the field completely on obvious passing downs. So, what the hell are you talking about?

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delayed blitz's when teams are constantly using quick pass plays

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This delayed blitz is an automatic check based on a LB realizing mid-play that 1) the ball was not handed off, and 2) there's no receiver in his area, and coming after the QB late. This origin of this automatic mid-play delayed LB blitz is credited to Belichick in most stuff I've read. It frequently isn't a called portion of the play. Furthermore, it's quite useful to close running lanes versus QBs who like to pull it and run when the play breaks down. And so again, what the hell are you talking about?