Former Alabama Crimson Tide players seriously concerned about defense…

 

Overreaction to Vanderbilt’s upset of the Alabama Crimson Tide has been something to avoid. Unless the word overreaction does not apply. If it doesn’t, Alabama Football could have more disappointments ahead.

Extreme reactions are always abundant after an Alabama loss. That has been even more true since last Saturday. Many Alabama football fans easily ignore college football punditry. It has been a good week to do so. Gloom and doom predictions for the Crimson Tide provide sizzle and little substance.

It is quite different when former Alabama football players voice their concerns. Former Crimson Tide defensive players, George Teague and Roman Harper provided outspoken criticism of the Tide’s defensive performance against Vanderbilt. It is impossible to ignore the expert knowledge of Teague and Harper. And no one can fairly claim they have anything but the best interests of the Crimson Tide motivating their comments.

In an Instagram video, Teague stated Alabama was not prepared to defend Vandy’s triple option. He explained in detail that he was talking about more than the results of Vandy’s success. The key word in Teague’s analysis was ‘preparation’. Coaches are responsible for preparation, so an ill-prepared Alabama defense goes back to Kane Wommack and Alabama’s defensive staff.

In a more recent video (see below) Roman Harper bluntly addressed three major concerns about the loss to Vandy. One concern applied to the Crimson Tide offense and defense. It was that Vanderbilt “physically beat” Alabama. Even for Alabama fans who watched that happen at times in the game, it remains stunning that a Vandy team could ever ‘physically beat’ an Alabama team.

Harper said that being “brutally honest” some of the philosophy tied to Alabama’s defensive scheme is a failure. Kane Wommack has used the term ‘vision coverage’ to explain his defenders eye the quarterback, allowing them to make quicker breaks to the ball. Harper said the vision coverage not only did not work, the ‘eye discipline’ of Alabama defenders was inexcusably bad. Harper said that at this point, the defensive scheme cannot be changed, but its execution must significantly improve.

Is the Alabama Crimson Tide defense fixable?
Going back to the Georgia game, Alabama fans have been asking about the lack of defensive adjustments. Kane Wommack stated Alabama made adjustments during the Vandy game. Harper’s take is whatever was done, the results were not successful enough. At this point, Harper says it would be better to simplify, instead of doing too much, poorly.