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5 takeaways from the Tide’s ugly win over LSU
A win is a win. But not all wins are created equal. Alabama’s 20-14 win over LSU on Saturday night was one of the most painful wins to watch in recent memory.
Each week we take a look at five things we learned from that particular week’s contest. This week’s list is bound to create some controversy.
Let’s get started!
Given his track-record, will Pete Golding be in charge of the Alabama defense moving forward?
Alabama would have liked to come out of Week 5 with far better results and an unblemished record. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards against Jimbo Fisher and his Texas A&M squad.
Much of the blame for the lackluster performance has been placed on third-year defensive coordinator Pete Golding. I can’t say that the blame isn’t warranted. Aside from the outlier, against Ole Miss in Week 4, the defense has performed well below the benchmark that was expected of them to start the season.
Even with significant losses to Dylan Moses, Christian Barmore and Patrick Surtain II to the NFL Draft, the Crimson Tide still brought back a ton of talent. On the defensive line, LaBryan Ray, Phil Mathis, D.J. Dale, Justin Eboigbe, Byron Young and Tim Smith all have the talent and experience to make an impact. It just hasn’t come to fruition, yet. Alabama’s D-line has been ran through and pushed around all year, and one has to wonder if the schemes aren’t doing anything to help them.
Losing Christopher Allen to injury hasn’t done the Tide any favors, either, but when you know the nature of Alabama, the next man up should be just as capable as his predecessor. Sure, he may not have much experience, but experience is gained in playing the games and getting the reps on the practice field.
On the back-end, plenty of returning players were poised to improve greatly when compared to last year, it just hasn’t happened.
During the Texas A&M game, the defensive performance in the first half was not good. Texas A&M’s backup quarterback, Zach Calzada, completed 16 of his first 17 passes. Coverage in the back-end lacked most of the evening, and part of that can be blamed on the defensive line not getting off blocks, giving Calzada enough time to go through his progressions easily. The coverage schemes, at this point, may be too complicated given the strengths of the defense. Simplifying the defense would be beneficial. Disguising the coverage even a little would absolutely be beneficial.
It’s never good when a quarterback knows exactly what’s in front of him. That has happened all year. Nobody in coverage gives a look pre-snap that changes after the play begins. It’s possible to simplify a defense while disguising coverage. It’s as simple as changing the physical positions of DBs prior to the snap. That, alone, is good enough to confuse a QB and make him believe that he is seeing one look while actually getting another.
Consider this, Pete Golding has helped just one player on his defenses since his promotion in 2019 get picked in the first round of the NFL Draft, that was CB Patrick Surtain II.
Another consideration: Pete Golding has had his hands on multiple five-star recruits at all levels of the defense, and a large majority of them haven’t panned out. Players earn the coveted fifth star when they’re likely to be a future first-round NFL Draft pick. That’s why there are never more than 32 five-stars in any given recruiting class. So, what’s the issue? Why can’t Pete Golding design a defense to play to the strengths and minimize the weaknesses?
When watching the Texas A&M game again, the defense in the second half was much improved. Who engineered this vast amelioration? I’m under the impression, and have good reason to believe that Nick Saban and Charles Kelly relieved Golding of his defensive play-calling duties following the halftime break.
It worked impeccably, until the last two drives. I believe that Saban gave Golding the chance to call those last two drives for his job. The results were telling. Moving forward, I fully expect Saban to allow Kelly to assist him with the play-calling. While Golding will be kept on to keep up appearances, I truly don’t expect him to have much of a hand in the defense other than his specialty, linebackers, moving forward.
After this season, I’m calling it now, Pete Golding will not be Alabama’s defensive coordinator.
I wouldn’t be surprised, at all, if he is relieved prior to the end of the season, however, it’s hard to imagine Saban would make a change that drastic mid-season.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for continued coverage of the Alabama Crimson Tide!
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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
What we learned from Alabama’s loss to Texas A&M.
Alabama’s comeback attempt fell short Saturday night in College Station, as the Texas A&M Aggies made the plays late and hit a field goal as time expired to upset the Tide 41-38.
Alabama was able to outgain the Aggies by 143 yards, but that was not enough to escape Kyle Field with a victory.
There was a lot to be learned from the Tide’s performance, so let’s get right to it.
Alabama set the tone early and never looked back. Here is our final grade for the Tide after their dominating victory over Ole Miss.
In one of the most anticipated matchups of the college football weekend, No. 1 Alabama completely dominated the Ole Miss Rebels 42-21. Many experts thought Lane Kiffin and the Rebels could upset the Tide, but Alabama set the tone early and never looked back.
The offense went back in time and delivered a crushing running game and the defense played assignment football to limit the explosive Rebels offense.
Let’s get to the grades, shall we?
Offense: A+
The Alabama offense but the game in the hands of running back Brian Robinson Jr. and he delivered a career performance. Behind a great showing by the Tide offensive line, Robinson rushed for 171 yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries.
Bryce Young continued his success going 20-26 for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Young did throw his second interception of the season and was also sacked three times in the contest. Darrian Dalcourt had issues throughout the game with shotgun snaps and is something to monitor moving forward.
If Alabama can continue to have a balanced attack, the offense will be tough t stop for opposing defenses.
Defense: A-
The Alabama defense set the tone early in the contest with a fourth-down stop in the red zone. The Ole Miss offense could not muster much in the first half. The defensive line, led by Phidarian Mathis and Will Anderson, disrupted Matt Corral for the majority of the contest.
Pete Golding put together a great game plan for the high-powered Rebel offense and the players executed the plan.
The defense did relax a little bit late in the game and allowed Ole Miss to score a couple of cheap touchdowns.
If the defense can continue to play with great intensity and execution, they will be among the nation’s best.
Special teams: A-
It’s hard to really go in-depth on the special teams unit because the only person busy was placekicker Will Reichard. Reichard connected on all six of his extra points and remains perfect on the season in that category.
The Tide special teams unit did commit a couple of mistakes and that is the only reason they did not receive an A+. On the opening kickoff, Reichard kicked it out of bounds, and in the second half freshman linebacker, Kendrick Blackshire was charged with a targeting call on a kickoff.
All in all, it was a solid performance from the Tide special teams unit.
Overall: A-
In a contest that the team would need to perform well, they did just that. Alabama owned the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and leaned on punishing running game to wear down the Ole Miss defense.
The defense had its best performance of the season shutting down the Ole Miss running game and limiting big plays.
The team continues to improve every week and still has plenty of room to grow. This team is nowhere near a finished product and that has to be scary to other teams around the SEC.
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.
What we learned from Alabama’s victory over the Miami Hurricanes
Alabama completely dominated the Miami Hurricanes from start to finish in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. Alabama played well on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. The 44 to 13 victory answered several questions that hovered over the football team during the offseason.
Alabama completely overpowers the Miami Hurricanes to earn its first win of the 2021 season
The Alabama Crimson Tide completely overpowered the Miami Hurricanes earning a 44 to 13 victory in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game.
First-year starter Bryce Young led the offense with 344 yards passing and four touchdowns, finishing 27 of 38 through the air.
Ohio State transfer Jameson Williams made a splash in his Alabama debut, finishing with four catches for 126 yards, including a 94-yard touchdown reception from Bryce Young.
The Pete Golding-led Alabama defense was just as dominating. They held the Hurricanes to just 13 points and a total of 266 total yards.
Super sophomore Will Anderson lived up to his preseason expectations. The talented EDGE defender finished the game with one sack and several QB hurries.
Alabama delivered a completely dominating performance to start the season. Let’s see if they can carry that over next week as they take on the Mercer Bears in Tuscaloosa.
Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for all the latest on the Crimson Tide.
What the Alabama coaches had to say in their preseason presser
Yesterday head coach Nick Saban, defensive coordinator Pete Golding, and offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien all spoke to members of the media via Zoom. Let’s take a quick look at what each coach had to say.
Nick Saban
Obviously coach Saban had a lot to say, we are just going to touch on some of the high notes. Let’s get started!
Pete Golding
Coach Golding was very excited when he spoke to the media. You can tell this guy has a competitive fire in him. Let’s take a look at few things he mentioned.
Bill O’Brien
Bill O’Brien is entering his first year as the offensive coordinator at Alabama, and he is excited to be back in the college game. Let’s take a look at some his thoughts on the 2021 Alabama football team.
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.
Former Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt is no longer the head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. Could he be on his way back t…
Former Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt left the Crimson Tide to accept the head coaching job for Alabama’s in-conference rival Tennessee.
In his three seasons with the Volunteers, Pruitt had one winning season and a total record of 16-19.
The defensive-minded coach has spent quite some time at Alabama, as both a player in the 1990’s and as an assistant serving various different roles for the program.
The announcement of Tennessee and Pruitt parting ways will reportedly also consist of plans for the future of the University’s Athletic Director position, as former football head coach, and current athletic director, Phillip Fulmer, will soon be retiring.
Sources: Tennessee will be parting ways with coach Jeremy Pruitt today. AD Phil Fulmer's future will also be addressed.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 18, 2021
With Pruitt no longer a head coach, and likely in search of a job, could Alabama decide to bring him back?
His sporadic resume with the Crimson Tide has shown him working for the program in an assistant coaching role three separate times, with numerous stops at different jobs in between. This would be Pruitt’s fourth time being hired by Alabama.
Surely, Pruitt could be interested in returning to the program, but is the desire mutually shared?
While there has been no official word from Alabama’s side, Pruitt definitely seems to think he’d be welcomed back.
Been trending this way for weeks. Jeremy Pruitt has told those around him this year if he gets fired, he'll just go back to Alabama and work for Saban again. https://t.co/oPqRRRc4gn
— John Talty (@JTalty) January 18, 2021
Nick Saban already has a defensive coordinator. Would Pruitt serve in a smaller role, or could there be a change in staff and Pete Golding’s time at the helm of the Crimson Tide defense comes to an end after only two seasons?
Roll Tide Wire will publish any updates regarding Jeremy Pruitt and his potential return to the Crimson Tide.
Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding has been connected to the Texas defensive coordinator position, he would be the fourth Alabama…
Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding has been the center of a decent amount of criticism over his two years at the helm of the Crimson Tide defense, which may lead to him being on the move.
Not too many assistant coaches would leave a program fresh off of a national championship win, unless it is for a head coaching vacancy.
With former Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian being hired as the headcoach for the University of Texas, he has begun to assemble his staff.
The new Longhorns coaching staff looks to be ‘Crimson Tide 2.0’ without Nick Saban.
Sarkisian has recruited tight ends and special teams coach Jeff Banks and Offensive line coach Kyle Flood.
Now, could a fourth Alabama coach be on the move?
Bobby Burton of InsideTexas.com has reportedly linked Golding to Texas as a “prime candidate” for the role.
This news garners mixed reactions from Alabama fans, as many had been unhappy with his defensive play calling during his two seasons as defensive coordinator.
Inside Texas has learned that Alabama DC Pete Golding has become prime candidate for same role at Texas. Others still in the mix.
— Bobby Burton (@BobbyBurton87) January 14, 2021
No official word from any of the involved parties, but Roll Tide Wire will publish any information that becomes available.
