Did you not know Minkah was a leader going into last year? That is what I mean by proven leadership and anyone can see it from those returning leaders like minkah last year or the massive list of great bama defensive players under Saban, just not as many of those returning this year in my mind. Also have some guys coming off of injury and you never know exactly how some of them will come back so I just see a few questions and am going to wait to see how it plays out before predicting another all time great D.

I don't expect leadership to be a problem and the young guys will step up and take control of the team (changing of the guard). I keep trying to say i'm not worried about the defense, and i'm not worried about them finding defensive leadership there just isn't the usual abundance of those guys returning- again at least in my mind.

These young guys are coming up and are going to be great players but, in my opinion, the elite Bama defenses tend to come in the years when Alabama has those returning elite leaders and players coming back from the prior season, not in their first break out season. Those returning guys are ready to go game 1, no need to get their feet under them, then the younger guys just stepping into their role find their feet and it all comes together with playmakers across the field who all know their role and are in position.

Last year was a bit weird, lots of injuries so lots of guys got experience but a lot of people didn't get to play as much as you would normally hope due to their injury - a bit of a trade off there.

So as I've said I think bama D is going to be quite good this year, they may even strike gold and be one of those scary groups where you are wondering how the other team can possibly score at any point in the game.

Personally, I feel like there are going to be less questions next year and more returning playmakers and experienced leadership so I feel like that sort of top level saban D is more likely to be seen next year. I'll be ecstatic if i'm wrong though and we get the completely dominant defense this year - but I've always just been more of a "wait and see how they pan out" type when it comes to football.

ETA: time for bed, but I think we've just about run the gamut on this topic anyway .

This post was edited on 5/15/18 at 1:42 am