The 2024 college football season won’t be easy for the Alabama Crimson Tide. The program will be without legendary head coach Nick Saban for the first time in nearly two decades, and the regular season schedule won’t do the team any favors as a handful of tough matchups will test the Tide.
New head coach Kalen DeBoer has gone up against his fair share of difficult opponents over the years, especially when he was at the helm of the Washington Huskies program.
With DeBoer being an offensive-minded coach, fans and experts are excited to see what he does with the Alabama offense in 2024, especially with Jalen Milroe returning after a strong finish to his first year as the team’s starting quarterback.
Milroe and DeBoer will be tested, however. Recent positional unit rankings by Pro Football Focus (PFF) have three Crimson Tide opponents for the 2024 season inside the top 10 for defensive secondaries.
At No. 9 are the Oklahoma Sooners, which hosts Alabama in a late season matchup that will serve as the first in-conference game between the two teams.
“The Sooners are loaded at safety, and the star of that unit is Billy Bowman Jr., whose six interceptions last year tied for the third most among all defenders in college football. Dasan McCullough is a hybrid safety/linebacker for Oklahoma and ranked sixth among Power Five safeties with an 88.2 coverage grade this past season (minimum 275 snaps). Peyton Bowen was a five-star recruit in the 2023 class and earned an impressive 68.0 grade on 363 snaps in his true freshman campaign.”
Appearing at No. 8 are the Wisconsin Badgers, which host Alabama in an interesting Week 3 matchup.
“Wisconsin’s secondary features one of the nation’s 10 best safeties (Hunter Wohler) and a top-15 cornerback (Ricardo Hallman). Wohler earned the second-best coverage grade among FBS safeties in 2023 and was the second-most valuable safety in the nation, according to PFF’s wins above average metric. Hallman was a ball-magnet in 2023, tying for the national lead with seven interceptions. That helped him generate just a 37.4 passer rating allowed, which ranked ninth among FBS cornerbacks.”
Finally, at No. 7 on the list is a familiar rival, the Georgia Bulldogs. This matchup will take place in Tuscaloosa as DeBoer and Kirby Smart meet for the first time as conference opponents.
“While Georgia returns only two of its five starting defensive backs from last season, the Bulldogs still deserve a spot in this top 10. A major reason for that is junior Malaki Starks, my No. 2 returning safety in college football. He earned an 84.8 run-defense grade as a sophomore, which placed him seventh in the Power Five at his position. He also tied for sixth in that same group with seven forced incompletions in 2023.”
Alabama’s secondary does not appear on the list, which does not come as much of a surprise considering two star cornerbacks were selected in the early rounds of the 2024 NFL draft and highly-coveted freshman DB Caleb Downs hit the transfer portal after Saban retired, he now plays for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Ironically, Downs and the Buckeyes rank No. 1 on this list as the top defensive secondary in all of college football for the 2024 season.
Roll Tide Wire will continue to follow Alabama football news as the 2024 offseason progresses.
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