re: Bama Football Tidings

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Legendary Alabama trainer Jim Goostree championed (mostly unsuccessfully) his theory that the best Crimson Tide football teams were the ones that had the least amount of physical practice. But he also recognized the truism of working for Coach Paul Bryant.

“To make an omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs.”

Someone has to make the decision, and it is the head football coach. And every coach knows as well as anyone that there are sometimes bad consequences from physical work.

As Alabama Coach Nick Saban put it Wednesday following practice – a practice without star inside linebacker Dylan Moses, who suffered what is believed to be a season-ending ACL injury in Tuesday’s practice – “There’s risk-reward in everything that you do.”

Saban was discussing the loss of Moses, one of the leading candidates for All-America and individual honors such as the Butkus Award given to the nation’s best linebacker. (Moses, incidentally, won the high school version of the Butkus.)

“I’m always the guy that has to make the decision as to whether we practice or don’t practice,” Saban said. “If we practice, we have a chance to be good. If we don’t practice, I don’t see how we can get any execution.”

Saban addressed the injury to one of Bama’s top players in his post-practice address Wednesday.

“We love Dylan,” Saban said. “He was a great leader. He was a great signal-caller on defense.

“I think it’s a character check for Dylan in terms of the support that we want to give him and the adversity that he has to overcome. But it’s also a character check for everybody on our team to be able to keep the faith, to respond to adversity the way they need to, to accept the challenge and to rise above the challenge. Support each other. Support young players that are going to have to play. And just kind of go from there. That's the only choice we have.”

Saban also addressed the issue of keeping injured players involved with the team, even when they are going to be unable to practice and play.

“First of all,” Saban said, “we try to communicate with them. Dylan today, obviously, and all the players that get hurt. We have great support staff here. We have a great medical staff. They do a tremendous job keeping them involved in terms of what they do relative to rehab. We still like for guys to be involved in meetings if they can be to help support the other players. We're doing everything we can to stay in communication with them, to encourage them, to support them. Teammates, coaches, everybody in the organization.”

Saban wasn’t confused when he opened Wednesday’s practice report with “Typical Thursday practice.” The team went into the indoor practice facility and included high-decibel noise, a Thursday staple, which, Saban said, “really is a challenge to the communication. Got to keep your poise when you have noise. Got to still be able to communicate whether it's hand signals or whatever.

“I think the most important thing from yesterday until the game is really focusing, having the mental energy and intensity to continue to get the mental practice that you need to get reps without having to do it in practice over and over and over. Also it's important to rest, rehydrate, refuel, eat right, do all the things you can so that we can get our players 100 percent ready to go out and play this game.

“I think everybody is excited about the game. I think they're excited about having the opportunity to play in Atlanta. I think they're excited about playing a good Duke team.”

Saban is excited, too.

“We're excited about this team,” he said. “I really like this team. I like the character of this team. These guys have worked hard, tried to do things the right way. We're looking forward to playing somebody and kind of seeing where we are. [Thursday] we'll have a chance to have one extra day” to correct any deficiencies from Wednesday.

Saban was a bit vague regarding which player will take over Moses’s play-calling responsibilities.

“Whoever's playing Mike linebacker,” he said, pointing out that two freshmen (Christian Harris and Shane Lee) are playing the inside linebacker spots, middle and weakside. “ We've got to work with them on it. They've been calling the defenses. They've been getting the signals with the twos, now they're going to have to move up and be able to get the communication with the ones.”

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This is how a season starts to go sideways before it even begins.

First there are injuries, and then there are minor disciplinary problems that require attention, and then something catches a team off guard and blindsides it so badly that the wind is completely pushed out of the lungs.

And, like that, standards begin to erode.

The Process begins to break down.

Alabama was left gasping for air on Wednesday after the loss of preseason All-American linebacker Dylan Moses for all of 2019, and the season begins on Saturday. Let’s put this into perspective. Only losing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa would be worse news for Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide on the eve of the season.

Good thing Alabama is only opening up against Duke and not, say, Oregon or Texas.

Compounding the problem is this, of course. The defense already lost one projected starting interior linebacker at the beginning of fall camp.

Josh McMillon, a redshirt senior, was replaced by true freshman linebacker Christian Harris after the first scrimmage of fall camp. McMillon was a trusted leader, and important to Alabama’s success this season. He injured his knee and is out for the season.

Now this.

Moses has a severe knee injury as well, and is out for the season.

Alabama will begin the season making compromises.

And all after the defense was so bad against Clemson in the 2019 national championship game that Dabo Swinney took it easy on his alma mater in the end.

This is one of the worst possible scenarios for a defense already thin at the linebacker position.

News of Moses’ injury makes the suspensions to star running backs Najee Harris and Brian Robinson seem trivial. Harris and Robinson were informed of a partial-game suspension for the season opener after missing a team function, but now you start to wonder if gaining yards early against Duke are more important than a lesson in discipline.

No, that would be a mistake.

That is how cracks begin to form in the foundation of a national championship contender.

Alabama remains an enormous favorite to beat Duke despite so much chaos to the depth chart this week, but SEC play isn’t too far away, and in this conference not even Alabama can absorb the losses of Moses and McMillion without a sense of panic.

Alabama opens up SEC play on the road against South Carolina in three weeks. Those crazy kids in Columbia will be dreaming of a repeat of 2010 when the Gamecocks shocked Alabama at Williams-Brice Stadium. What was once viewed as a warm up for the Tide will now be an early litmus test for a vulnerable defense.

Don’t be fooled by early blowouts. This linebacking unit will now need time to gel and learn. Who is going to call the plays and set the defense? Communication will be key over the next few weeks.

If we learned anything last season, it’s that Alabama’s incredible offense has a way of masking mistakes until it is too late.

There will be no way to hide two freshmen at interior linebacker, though.

No way.

That is the worrisome choice now facing Saban and his defensive staff. Give another athletic youngster a chance, or go with a player who hasn’t quite been able to break through? Behind Moses on the depth chart this week was true freshman Shane Lee of Baltimore, Md. He was rated the fifth-best interior linebacker as a high-school senior, but that means absolutely nothing now.

Alabama is already starting a true freshman at defensive tackle (D.J. Dale), and true freshman Christian Harris at weak-side linebacker. These are kids who don’t even have their pictures in the media guide next to their bios, and can’t talk to reporters until next season.

Young players lead Alabama all the time, but never have they had to do it quite like this.

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Joseph Goodman is a (shitstirring hack) columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

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