re: Saban's comments on the defense post-South Carolina

I agree that Pruitt is Saban's best DC, IMO, by far. I loved his aggressive style but he had fabulous and experienced talent. He also gave up 43, 30, 35 in '16 and 20+ 4 times and 19 in '17. It's a different world now and Bama's D talent and experience is not what it was through '17. As I said earlier, Golding was very aggressive, with almost a DC "mad bomber" rep in his last stop at UTSA. In his 2 years he improved them by 190 ypg to 7th in the FBS and 8th in scoring D in Conf USA. You can rest assured CNS has his hand on the throttle - IMO, wisely so.

Bama held USC to 16 pts with one TD being a long incredible pass and catch that was double covered like a blanket. The pass rush was not great but not nearly as impotent as some suggest. And there were times that Bama simply blew run fits, which looked bad. But USC had trouble running inside with most of their success wide. USC pulled out every conceivable stop but Bama had almost full control the entire game, why make yourself vulnerable to the big play which was the only way USC could have pulled off a fluke? USC played very well and Bama played OK resulting in what was in essence a 30 point win.