Alabama’s Lupoi gets his first chance at defensive coordinator
The last time Alabama’s football program didn’t have Kirby Smart or Jeremy Pruitt as its defensive coordinator, the Crimson Tide lost to Louisiana-Monroe and played in the Independence Bowl.
These are much better days in Tuscaloosa, and Tosh Lupoi knows it.
Lupoi is entering his fourth season on Nick Saban’s full-time staff but his first as defensive coordinator. After serving as a defensive analyst in 2014, Lupoi has overseen the outside linebackers since 2015, so he worked under Smart his first two years and Pruitt the last two.
“I’m tremendously blessed to be in this position, and I’m fortunate to have Coach Saban instill the faith in myself and the staff that we have here,” Lupoi said last weekend in a news conference. “I came here to be at the mecca of college football. We’re in an environment here where you get challenged every day. It’s the most competitive environment that there is, I believe, at the college football stage.
“It’s a constant environment of growing and learning, and that’s what I love to do.”
Alabama has two new coordinators this season — Mike Locksley was promoted to guide the offense — for the first time since 2008, when Saban hired Fresno State offensive coordinator Jim McElwain to the same role in Tuscaloosa and promoted Smart to run his defense. That followed Saban’s debut year, when the Crimson Tide posted a 6- 6 regular season that included the upset loss to ULM and a sixth consecutive Iron Bowl defeat.
The Crimson Tide are 125-14 in the decade since with five Southeastern Conference titles and five national championships.
While Smart and Pruitt were parlaying successful runs under Saban to head-coaching opportunities at Georgia and Tennessee, Lupoi was working his way up the ranks within the Tide staff. He was given the title of co-defensive coordinator prior to the 2016 season and became the coordinator this past February.
Lupoi, a former University of California defensive lineman who is now the veteran of Alabama’s staff, will maintain the responsibility of outside linebackers.
“Tosh has not called defenses before, but we have tried to be very helpful to him in his development,” Saban said last month at SEC Media Days. “We have (inside linebackers coach) Pete Golding, who has been a coordinator and has called defenses as a co-coordinator. Having the two of them working together as well as me looking over their shoulders might be something that we can grow and develop into something that’s not going to affect our chances to be successful on that side of the ball.”
The Crimson Tide returned to practice Monday after taking Sunday off, working out in shoulder pads and shorts.
Alabama returns just three defensive starters — Isaiah Buggs and Raekwon Davis up front and Anfernee Jennings at outside linebacker — from its 2017 national championship squad, but that challenge might be a breeze compared to what Lupoi experienced last season. In last year’s opener against Florida State, outside linebackers Christian Miller and Terrell Lewis suffered injuries and didn’t return until the regular-season finale at Auburn, yet the Tide still managed to lead the nation in scoring defense and rushing defense for a second consecutive year.
Lewis tore an ACL last month, giving Lupoi an obstacle well before the Sept. 1 opener against Louisville.
Perhaps mixing and matching will not be an issue for Lupoi, who points out that former Tide linebackers Reggie Ragland and Rashaan Evans worked inside and outside on a defense that uses concepts of both a 3-4 and a 4-3. There is also the task of working more with a secondary that is without six players from a season ago, including five who were drafted, yet it’s another opportunity Lupoi welcomes with open arms.
“That was a major goal of mine four seasons ago — to grow as much as possible and learn from the best in the business when it comes to the coverage concepts,” Lupoi said. “That process started when I came to Alabama. I take a lot of pride in knowing things now that I didn’t know five years ago.”