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5 players to watch when Alabama returns from the BYE week
No. 3 Alabama is currently in the middle of its BYE week and most fans are still hungry for news on the Crimson Tide.
I thought we could take a few moments to look at a handful of players that fans should keep their eye on when Alabama returns to the action on November 6 against LSU.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Here is a closer look at Alabama’s defensive stats as the Tide heads into the BYE week.
Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide currently sit ranked at No. 3 with a 7-1 overall record and a 4-1 record in the SEC.
Now that the Tide has entered into its BYE week, I thought it was a good time to take a closer look at some of the team and individual stats on both sides of the football.
Today we look at the defensive side of the football!
3 impact players for Alabama’s matchup with the Mississippi State Bulldogs!
The college football world will be watching the fifth-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide tonight to see if they can respond to last week’s tough loss.
The Tide is headed to Starkville to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in an SEC matchup.
Before kickoff, I wanted to take a look at three players for the Tide who I believe could have the biggest impact in this particular contest.
Shall we get started?
Let’s look at how the Alabama defensive position units have graded out at the halfway point of the season!
Unfortunately, we are already at the halfway point of the college football season. After last week’s loss to Texas A&M, Alabama sits at No. 5 in the country with a 5-1 record.
Since we have made it to the halfway point, it is time to give a midseason grade to each of the position groups. Yesterday we looked at the offensive position groups. Today we will look at the defensive position groups! Let’s get started!
This group has been a little disappointing this season, but they have not been bad by any stretch of the imagination. Only one guy has been a consistent force on the defensive line for Alabama and that is Phidarian Mathis.
Mathis has racked up 3.5 sacks through the halfway point, which is a very solid number for an interior defensive lineman.
Some of the players such as Justin Eboigbe, DJ Dale, Byron Young, and even Tim Smith need to become more consistent players for the Tide.
Will Anderson has been an absolute animal for the Alabama defense. Anderon has three sacks on the season but is also third in the country in tackles for loss with 11.
Unfortunately, injuries have plagued the outside linebacker position opposite of Anderson. Christopher Allen’s season was cut short in the opener against Miami so Drew Sanders replaced the talented Allen. Then against Ole Miss, Sanders suffered a hand injury and is now week-to-week so to speak.
True freshman Dallas Turner has stepped up in the absence of Sanders and is doing a pretty good job.
The outside linebackers have been the most positive group along the defense this season.
The lofty expectations for the Alabama defense heading into the 2021 season had a lot to do with the pair of inside linebackers that Alabama would have in Christian Harris and Henry To’oT’o.
Now that we are at the halfway point, it is safe to say those two players have not lived up to expectations. Now don’t get me wrong, they have flashed how great they can, but they both have also missed tackles and missed assignments. And they are both better than what they played so far.
Let’s see if they can turn this around in the second half of the season.
This group, much like the outside linebacker group, has really played pretty consistently all season. Josh Jobe has had the occasional penalty, but if we are being honest, in the pass and flag happy world in which college football is played, some penalties are to be expected.
Jalyn Armour-Davis has maybe been the surprise player of the season for the Tide. He is always in position and if he doesn’t make a play on the ball, he brings the receiver down quickly with no yards after the catch.
We have also seen the backups get a start this season in Kool-Aid McKinstry and Marcs Banks and they have proven to be valuable depth at the cornerback position.
It is a common theme among the Alabama defense this season, the word inconsistent. Alabama returned plenty of experience in the back end of the defense and for whatever reason, they have simply not performed to their capabilities.
Jordan Battle isn’t an elite safety, he’s just steady. DeMarcco Hellams is constantly caught out of position and displays poor open-field tackling. Then you have Malachi Moore and Brian Branch who have yet to make a splash play from the star position.
The season is only half over, so that means there is plenty of time for each position group to correct its mistakes and get back to the Alabama defensive standard.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for all the latest on the Crimson Tide!
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Stacey Blackwood on Twitter @Blackwood89.
The Alabama defense didn’t play to potential against Texas A&M. Is defensive coordinator Pete Golding to blame?
Alabama entered Saturday’s contest against Texas A&M with a sizable advantage, all but poised to come out of the noisy Kyle Field with a win.
The Aggies (4-2) had no such plan, however, upsetting the No. 1 ranked Crimson Tide (5-1) by a final score of 41-38.
You might be asking yourself, what happened with the defense between last week against Ole Miss and now. The answer has a lot to do with general inconsistency. However, it does go much further than just that.
Since last year, Alabama loyalists have been wondering why defensive coordinator Pete Golding still has a position at the Capstone. The answer isn’t clear, but what needs to be done is clear: He has to go.
To expound, Golding has under-performed in all of his time as defensive coordinator for the Tide. This leads to many questions: Why is he still here? Is he even capable of improving? It remains to be seen, but the inconsistency has to be addressed.
Last week, Alabama held a high-octane offense in Ole Miss to just 21 points, many of those in garbage time well after the game was decided. On Saturday against a team in Texas A&M that’s missing several key pieces of their offense, they gave up 41 points.
Most of it was very bad play-calling. You can blame it on the injuries to Chris Harris and Drew Sanders, to an extent. Maybe even blame it a little on the early ejection of Malachi Moore. However, you can’t explain it all away with these outliers.
The schemes weren’t great, there were no disguises in coverage. Texas A&M QB Zach Calzada knew exactly what was lined up opposite of him on every single play. And this isn’t an experienced guy.
The defensive line provided little to no pressure on Calzada against an O-Line that’s missing a starter and only brought back one guy from last year.
At some point, the defense is going to have to force a turnover in must-have situations.
The defensive play-calling on the Aggies last drive was abysmal. When all you had to do was keep everything in front of you, Golding designed plays that seemed like they were meant to fail.
Saban had a few things to say, but none of them pertained to the performance of Golding.
“Hopefully we’ll learn a lot from this. We still can accomplish everything we want to accomplish in terms of — we got to do things better than we did tonight. We got to play better, we got to be more consistent. We got to finish drives. We got to get more turnovers on defense. We need to get more stops on defense. There’s a lot of things we need to fix.”
To answer the question in the headline, it doesn’t seem like Golding is capable of running an elite defense at the SEC-level. After two years, I haven’t seen anything to suggest otherwise. Maybe he has an unopened bag of tricks that we haven’t seen, yet, but I won’t hold my breath.
Winning out will be a huge challenge if the defense and it’s coordinator continue to perform like they did against Texas A&M.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for continued coverage of the Alabama Crimson Tide!
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Layne Gerbig on Twitter @LayneG_29
Alabama will be playing without one of their better DBs for the remainder of the contest against Texas A&M.
Alabama will be playing without one of their better DBs for the rest of this matchup against Texas A&M in a hostile environment.
105,000 rowdy fans are in attendance for Texas A&M’s huge matchup against the Tide. Coming into the game 3-2, A&M doesn’t have much of a chance making the playoff, but a win against Alabama would be huge for their confidence moving forward.
Crimson Tide DB Malachi Moore was called for targeting on Aggie QB Zach Calzada, well after the ball left his hands.
Sophomore Brian Branch will be his replacement for the remainder of the game.
Malachi Moore is ejected with a targeting call 😒 pic.twitter.com/ewozrDPvFK
— Alabama DieHards (@DiehardsAlabama) October 10, 2021
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for continued coverage of the Alabama/Texas A&M game!
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Layne Gerbig on Twitter @LayneG_29
Previewing the Alabama defensive backs
Last season saw Alabama returning just one starter in the back end of the defense in Patrick Surtain. This season the only spot open is the void that Surtain left after being a top ten pick in the NFL draft this spring.
Let’s take a look at some of the guys who are expected to see playing time this fall in the Alabama defensive backfield.
Name/Pos.: Josh Jobe, CB
Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 194 pounds
Josh Jobe is entering his second full season as a starter at corner for the Tide. Jobe is coming off a season where he finished tied for third in the country with 11 passes defended. Jobe has played in the shadows of Patrick Surtain for the past couple of seasons but now looks to lead the cornerbacks in Tuscaloosa.
Name/Pos.: Jayln Armour-Davis, CB
Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 192 pounds
Armour-David is a talented corner with great length and athleticism. He had a really good spring and has carried that over to fall camp. But will he be able to hold off future stars Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold? This is one of the most intriguing battles in fall camp.
Name/Pos.: Malachi Moore, STAR
Height/Weight: 6-foot-0, 190 pounds
Last season Moore was one of the breakout players for the Tide. He finished his true-freshman campaign with 3 interceptions and added another 6 passes defended. With a year of experience under his belt, Moore could become one of the best defensive backs in the entire country this season.
Name/Pos.: Jordan Battle, SS
Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 210 pounds
Battle saw some action as a true freshman in the 2019 season and flashed his potential then. Last year he showed the continued development leading the backend of the Alabama defense. Battle is a physical player with great instincts and ball skills. If Battle can become more of a playmaker you could see his name rise up the ranks heading into the 2022 NFL draft.
Name/Pos.: DeMarcco Hellams, FS
Height/Weight: 6-foot-1, 208 pounds
Hellams is a play to become one of the breakout players for the Tide this fall. Last season Hellams slowly starting taking some reps from Daniel Wright at FS, and you started to see some of the potential that Hellams has. Hellams may be one of the hardest hitters on the entire Alabama team. If he can improve his coverage skills, Hellams will be one of the top defensive players in the SEC.
Name/Pos.: Brian Branch, MONEY
Height/Weight: 6-foot-0, 190 pounds
Branch came to Tuscaloosa last season as one of the top-rated defenders in the 2020 class. Branch battled Moore for the starting spot at STAR where Moore got the upper hand, but around the middle of the season, you started to see more of Branch in the MONEY packages. Branch is one of the best cover guys on the team and according to some sources, he has seen some reps at corner this fall. Branch could become the breakout player for Alabama this season on defense.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for all the latest on the Crimson Tide!
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion.
Roll Tide Wire takes a look into projecting the Alabama Crimson Tide’s defensive depth chart for the 2021 college football season.
We continue to work our way through the college football offseason, but spring practice is just around the corner. Alabama’s annual A-Day Game is tentatively set for April 17, so practices should start in a few weeks.
We wanted to go ahead and dive into a pre-spring depth chart for the Crimson Tide. First, it was the offensive side of the football, but now we shift focus towards the defense. It wasn’t as effective of a unit as the offense, but it returns a large majority of its starters.
Enjoy!
*Note: True freshmen are listed at the bottom of their respective position groups. Once we start to get an idea of where they could land on the depth chart in Year 1, we will make adjustments.
Here is a really early projection for how Alabama football’s defensive depth chart could shake out in 2021. Can the Crimson Tide repeat?
The time to celebrate another national championship under Nick Saban has come and gone. Now, it’s time to shift the focus to the fall of 2021, especially if Alabama is going to make another title push.
We started with a projected depth chart for the offensive side of the football on Saturday. Now let’s turn to the defensive side. Alabama will suffer the loss of Dylan Moses, Patrick Surtain II, Christian Barmore and potentially LaBryan Ray and Ben Davis.
With that said, there is still a ton of talent coming back on defense, which could be crucial with so much roster turnover on the offensive side of the ball. Check it out below.
*Note: True freshman are listed at the bottom of their respective position groups. Once we start to get an idea of where they could land on the depth chart in Year 1, we will make adjustments.
Alabama has an 18 point lead over the Auburn Tigers at the half. A handful of touchdowns by Mac Jones, and some stellar defense…
The Alabama Crimson Tide seem to have full control over Bo Nix and the Auburn Tigers, despite Nick Saban not being present.
Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian has Alabama in a good position to finish out strong, as the contest’s first half comes to a close with a score of 21-3.
Mac Jones is having an amazing day, completing nine of 13 passing attempts for 174 yards and three touchdowns. All three passes to result in scores for Alabama were thrown to different receivers: DeVonta Smith, Malachi Moore and Jahleel Billingsley.
Najee Harris has been contained, only rushing five times for 25 yards, but has also seen a one reception for an additional 25 yards.
Pete Golding and the Crimson Tide defense have held Bo Nix to a very ineffective first half in the air, only allowing 12 completions for 96 yards and an interception to close out the half.
On the ground, Auburn has not had much luck, 20 total carries for 57 yards.
There’s still an entire half remaining in the game for Auburn to stage a comeback; however, the same argument could be made for Alabama to extend the lead, essentially ending the game far before the four quarters conclude.
The biggest star of the first half is true-freshman defensive back Malachi Moore, who has an interception and a handful of big-time plays to help Alabama on the defensive side of the ball.
Roll Tide Wire will keep you updated on the 2020 Iron Bowl as the second half gets under way.
