Nine weeks ago one of the major areas of concern for the Alabama football team was its linebacker corps.
Remember? Of the four starters, only Rolando McClain had started a college football game. Question marks surrounded the other three — outside linebackers Cory Reamer and Brandon Fanney and inside linebacker Dont’a Hightower, a true freshman.
Eight victories later, McClain and Hightower anchor the No. 2 rush defense in the country, giving up just 62.4 yards per game on the ground. Fanney leads the team with six and a half tackles for loss. Reamer, who leaves the field when the Tide goes into its nickel and dime packages, is second with four and a half tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
“I think the key to all that was that Dont’a Hightower developed nicely as a freshman,”
Head coach Nick Saban said this week when asked about the linebackers. “He’s played with a lot of maturity and consistency. Prince Hall adds depth at that position. We’ve been fortunate to stay healthy and those guys have gotten a lot of reps and have made a lot of improvement throughout the year.”
McClain has been excellent. But he agreed that Hightower’s development allowed the defense to be this good.
“I mean, Dont’a, he has been amazing. He has done great, but it’s not to my surprise,”
McClain said. “He came in with a focus and he is trying his best every day. He practices hard, he studies hard, he studies with me. He does all the little things, so that hasn’t surprised me with how well he has done.”
Reamer said Hightower had a crash course in the preseason because the coaches “saw what kind of linebacker he could be.”
“He’s done a great job getting better, picking it up,”
Reamer said. “You can’t learn everything the first week, but it’s just been a gradual process. He’s picked it up week-by-week, things that he made a mistake on. He’s done a great job so far.”
Saban said Hightower’s progress allowed the Crimson Tide to move Reamer — who was going to move inside if the freshman couldn’t do the job — to outside linebacker.
“I think we did have to do some makeshift early on and I think we’ve been very fortunate that Cory Reamer moving to outside linebacker has played well,”
Saban said. “We tried to move Fanney to defensive end and he’s done a good job playing outside ’backer.”
However, McClain is the leader of the front seven. The sophomore standout leads the team with 52 tackles. Free safety Rashad Johnson is next with 45, then Hightower with 37.
“I think Rolando McClain has had an outstanding year. He’s a good leader, a very bright guy with a good understanding in what we’re doing,”
Saban said. “(He) has enhanced and helped with his leadership and communication. And we’ve made a lot fewer mental errors this season and I think it’s been helpful to all of those guys.”
Of course, those preseason predictions stoked the fire, too.
“We took it personally that we were going to be the weak part of the defense,”
Reamer said.
“… Yeah, you couldn’t avoid it — it was everywhere. Every time you picked up a newspaper, it was ‘linebackers are going to the weak part of the defense.’
You constantly heard it and we just took it personal. ... With the lack of talent and experience that we had, we knew we had to study the playbook and make up for that.”
McClain saw glimpses of how good the unit — and the overall defense — could be in training camp.
“I knew last year we had a chance to be good, but the addition of Terrence Cody and guys learning their position better, I knew we had a chance to be good,”
the sophomore said.
McClain said several times this season he’s noticed teams locating him before the ball is snapped.
“Coach Saban said as I get better it’s going to get harder,”
McClain said. “Offenses are going to try to single me out a little bit. But I think with Josh Chapman and Terrence Cody in front of me, it’s going to be hard because they have to account for them as well. It’s going to give me ways to free things up.”
The linebacker’s confidence is rolling, along with his unit’s results. The preseason concerns have faded over the past nine weeks.
“As a defense the sky is the limit right now,”
McClain said. “We have great players, we have coaches, we have great schemes.”
