Who will lead Tide in tackles this season?
Inside linebackers, safeties usually top Saban’s teams.
Quick, do you know who led Alabama in tackles during the 2017 national championship season?
It was safety Ronnie Harrison.
Although linebacker was supposed to be a major strength for the Crimson Tide, the only one to play in all 14 games was Keith Holcombe, and he made only three starts.
Having a defensive back top the team in tackles isn’t that surprising, but Harrison’s 74 were the fewest by anyone to lead the Crimson Tide during the Nick Saban era.
His performance shouldn’t be diminished by the injuries, either. When Shaun Dion Hamilton suffered a broken kneecap against LSU, he went into the game with 37 tackles. He was solidly in second behind Harrison, who led the team leaderboard with 44.
Against the Tigers, Hamilton was credited with 3 tackles before being sidelined while Harrison made six tackles, a half-sack and an interception to be named SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week.
What’s interesting is that even though Reuben Foster had the most tackles in a single season (2016) of any Alabama player to suit up for Saban, the Crimson Tide are still bucking a trend.
With college football becoming more and more offensive oriented, with teams doing everything they can to execute as many plays as possible, defenses are having to make more plays. So overall tackles are up.
Alabama is no exception, although last season the Crimson Tide skipped a game by not playing in the SEC Championship Game.
One would think the result of more snaps would be more standout players having inflated numbers, but that hasn’t been the case.
Alabama’s leading tacklers have been posting numbers nowhere near those of Saban’s previous teams, despite also playing more games.
The reasons why are numerous, but college football isn’t played nearly as much between the tackles as it used to be and countering the spread has led to speed being emphasized more than ever.
Saban’s scheme is still about shutting down the running lanes and chasing everything else but combined with Alabama having a lot of talent across the board there have been fewer opportunities to post big numbers.
Nevertheless, any conversation about who might lead the Crimson Tide in tackles has to begin with a look at who has led the team each year since Saban arrived in 2007.
The first thing that stands out about that list are the positions. Eight times the team was led by an interior linebacker, the other three being the strong safety. That narrows the field considerably.
The second thing is just about every player on the list was an established veteran during the season listed. However, that doesn’t mean much for this discussion as just about everyone in the interior and in the secondary will be new starters in 2018.
Three strong possibilities stand out, and none of them should be surprise: Mack Wilson, Dylan Moses and Deionte Thompson. All three have made exactly two starts, so no one knows for certain how they’ll stand up over the course of an entire season.