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Among the highlights of the first defense season of the University of Alabama, let us mention the three men at the front. They helped keep Duke at 3.3 meters per race; sophomore Phidarian Mathis set a new career record with five tackles.
Alabama is no stranger to the strong performance of defensive lines, individually and collectively. Doing it like this was done against Duke, however, counteracts the trend.
UA did not rotate the defensive linemen in its first game of the season, as it has become known in recent years. Raekwon Davis, DJ Dale and LaBryan Ray by taking almost all the shots. New bodies eventually had representatives when the game went out of control – and will probably do the same on Saturday against the New Mexico State – but the first-period work rates stand out from the recent UA history.
"I do not really know, every piece that I'm just trying to focus on doing my job and doing my best at that point," Ray said about the workload. "I do not really think about it mentally so I go and play my best every moment."
In the first half against Duke, Alabama's starting alabama, Dale and Ray have been together more times. The fourth lineman, Mathis, played only four free-kicks in the first period, most of the time in Davis' stead. There was a time when Dale and Ray were allowed breaks, mostly at third when the linebacker was replaced Christopher Allen in his pass-rush package – but Ray only missed one hook in the first period.
First-year student Byron Young arrived in the field at the beginning of the third quarter and reserves eased in the fourth quarter, but the first-half turnover was small compared to previous years.
Take the first game of the 2018 season against Louisville, for example, when five defensive linemen played at least five free kicks in the first half; Mathis played six times in the second quarter against Louisville, compared to four in the first period against Duke.
In the opening game against the state of Florida in 2017, UA used six defensive linemen in the first half, including Da'Shawn Hand who played 35 shots on goal, the record of all the defensive line players of the AU in the first half in the last three seasons. In this game, Isaiah Buggs, Joshua Frazier and Quinnen Williams all played between 9 and 14 shots.
Jimbo Fisher, his slow-moving opponent, must be warned, allowing more frequent replacements than most college football offenses.
There is also the fact that Duke played fewer pieces in the first period (27) than Louisville (29) or the state of Florida (35). Even when shooting less than usual, no line player took on an excessive workload: Ray played 26 times in the first half against Duke, just as Davis had 26 against Louisville. Hand's 35 and Da'Ron Payne 33 against Florida State are the real outliers, but again, the Seminoles forced the AU to cover eight more snapshots than Duke.
Even with fewer clichés to cover in this case, there is no guarantee that this will be the case in the future. Coach from Alabama Nick Saban expressed the desire to find more options for that day.
"We are trying to develop a lot of young players to this position. So that's an objective we're working on to develop some of these young players so that we can get the kind of depth we have. need to maintain the season, "said Saban.
Inside, it would be back to the first year Stephon Wynn Jr. and senior Tevita Musika. Mathis is listed as a Davis backup, so this answer is already in place.
A centerpiece of this puzzle will be the defensive end of freshmen Justin Eboigbe. He missed all practices of the first week and Duke's match due to a foot injury; He was not seen with the defensive line during this week's media viewing periods, including Wednesday's practice.
Saban said that Eboigbe's day was coming, but it would not be immediate.
"Justin was a guy who was in the two depths and who was injured," said Saban, "and we hope he'll come back in a week or two."
Contact Brett Hudson at 205-722-0196 or at [email protected] or via Twitter. @brett_hudson
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