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Since we know he’s returning, suspend your judgement and make an argument for bringing him back (not counting “he’s friends with Dilfer”). My main argument is that while we had some familiar names, our defense was overmatched in size and experience. We mostly rushed 4 and could not consistently pressure opposing offenses. So blitz? Well, we did but had neither the speed or strength to get to the QB quickly so our DBs, who again were overmatched, we’re hung out to dry. More specifically our LBs got caught in mismatches which is never good when the QB has time.

I personally thought Sione was handcuffed more than Mortenson because defense wasn’t remotely as deep as the offense. I think that took out a large chunk of his defensive playbook.

Aside from that, I think a year in the weight room and Sione having a year under his belt will produce a much better performance in 2024.

Our inability to pressure anybody, or make tackles at the first level of defense made the job impossibly difficult for anybody, let alone a brand new college football coach. Those guys should have been making calls and visits as often as possible to any guy who can help us there.

We were terrible at maintaining qbs that could move. I’m sure the above didn’t help that, but too often we were in a position where nobody was within 20 yards of the qb if he broke through the initial four guys.

I don’t know enough about the X’s and O’s to call him a complete failure, but it’s pretty clear to me we did not have the Joe’s. I’m hoping a combination of a year’s experience and new guys will help this.

The last few games the defense has appeared better against inferior opponents. Is that a sign of improvement, or just who we are playing? I don’t know. I do know that we managed to hang with some of the better teams in the conference for at least a half this year. I’m hoping that can be more of a complete game next year.

Tuazama & Key leaving to take NIL money elsewhere was a major hit, but completely unpreventable unless we get a sudden influx of major NIL donors. Don't blame them for transferring. Leadership vacuum in the safeties and edge rushing. Would have definitely helped to have them around.

Quincy Mcgee would've been a leader on the offensive line. losing all 5 starters last year plus injuries throughout the season.

Reese Burkhardt went to Texas Tech as well. Which is why we struggled on kickoffs all year. Dilfer didn't have a plan for a kickoff specialist, obviously.

According to the UABsports.com roster we had 49 Freshman and 17 seniors, 27 sophomore & 28 Juniors. Clark didn't try to compete in 2017 with that many freshman. 18 year old can't compete with 22 year olds that have 4+ more years in the weight room. Completely new O line and young inexperienced team. I.E. the same issue we had in 2019 when we basically backed into a division championship only to get blown out by FAU and App st in the champ/ bowl

Too many young new faces around the program to have the kind of defense we expect out of our program. I don't think Vincent/ Reeves would have done any better with this roster. They had struggled for a few years to bring in the defensive linemen we were getting back in 2017.

I see some young guys: Roussaw, Ricky Lee, and Emmanuel Waller, & strap hooks, Amare Thomas, and Beebe and think theres a lot of hope for next year to see these guys step up.

Next years OOC schedule is much easier, we have UL- Monroe, Uconn, Arkansas, and AL state. I see 3 winnable games OOC and Arkansas isn't back to back national champ Georgia.

What does it say when you need to recruit 4 of 5 positions like it’s an emergency?
LB, safety, Edge, DT. Can we sacrifice another year, waiting for the youngsters to develop and keeping career 3rd string upperclassmen around?

The cupboard was bare in regards to AAC talent, returning on this team. They went the HS route and now we are crossing fingers for Juco guys and putting HS guys with Austin Peay and Tennessee state offers on hold.

They are going to have to prove over the next month that they are going to and can recruit like they want to win now.

We didn’t have 1 TE participate in SR day and we lost a TE recruit to a MAC team. I don’t think I’ve ever been more embarrassed by a recruit flipping. That’s one position we needed to send 2 guys to the portal if not 3.

Regarding Defensive freshmen I’m excited about. Roussaw, Merriweather, Lee. Don’t feel like I saw enough of others.

Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if a guy like Roussaw or Amare Thomas ended up n the portal, bound for a middle of the pack power 5 school

Our defense suffered from a whole host of issues, but, and this is important, what those issues were changed as the year went along.

Take just one position group see how their season went, because it really is indicative of the whole team: The Defensive Line.

Our lineman went from the Clark era scheme where they were basically tasked with attacking a gap vertically as hard as they could, to one where they were expected to move laterally and cross the face of a lineman. When it works, it creates chaos and is harder for the o-line to pick up as a group. Our d-lineman only got to practice this against our inexperienced O-line, and for the most part, only against our blocking schemes. When the real games hit, go look at those early season games and you will see our d-lineman getting clobbered by opposing o-linemen when they were moving laterally. Huge running lanes were getting created by every team we played early. Good news is that they got better at it, got their techniques down and played much better as the season went along.

Then as we got into the season the next problem arose. Injuries. Below is the projected depth chart of our front 4 before the start of the season as predicted by a combination of AL.com in august and freshmen who have unexpectedly played, with how many games they played/started in parentheses. So for example when you see Joker Gill (9/1) that means Joker played in 9 games and started 1. If someone is listed in Green, it means they are a true freshman playing big boy football in the trenches against grown men. If their name is in italics it means they were not on the two deep to start the season


DT:Kevin Penn (10/9), Antavious Woody (1,0) Jonathan Allen( 4,0) , Eamon Smalls (4/0)
DT:Fish McWilliams (11/11), Tyrique Howard (8,0) Miquon Merriweather (9/1)
SAM:Michael Fairbanks (11/11). Jalen Mayala (0,0) Joker Gill (9/1) , Emmanuel Waller (8/0)
RUSH: Desmond Little(11,7) Michael Moore (10/8) Kendall Johnson (11,1) Tyler Thomas (3/0)


Now, I may be missing some, but looking at the above it should be obvious at a glance that we have missed a ton of games collectively on the defensive line due to injuries (and in one players case, temper tantrum) AND that we have had to give a metric crapton of snaps to true freshmen who in a perfect world would not have had to play on the line of scrimmage until they had a year of weight training and nutrition under their belt.

This doesnt even account for the players who are playing at well under 100% due to injuries but who havent missed any games because of it. It doesnt account for players who transferred out just before the season (Drew Tuazama has played in 4 games for South Carolina) or power five transfers who are on the roster but havent played (Jamin Graham transferred from Nebraska via Jax St, and Antavious Woody from FSU played only against Navy.) The above also gives credit to players who played in a game, but only for a few plays before getting injured.


Now that is just one position group and its not even the hardest hit line of scrimmage we have, the offensive line chart looks worse.

Nothing looks as worse as ILB or on ball/ off ball LBs. Sad part is Mike Moore and Jay Jones could've started there day one. Heck Man Man Harris would get reps there to try and get him on the field.

We tried the Rudy experiment with Goode and Sorrells instead. lol. And Rowell.

(11-22-2023 08:16 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  Our defense suffered from a whole host of issues, but, and this is important, what those issues were changed as the year went along.

Take just one position group see how their season went, because it really is indicative of the whole team: The Defensive Line.

Our lineman went from the Clark era scheme where they were basically tasked with attacking a gap vertically as hard as they could, to one where they were expected to move laterally and cross the face of a lineman. When it works, it creates chaos and is harder for the o-line to pick up as a group. Our d-lineman only got to practice this against our inexperienced O-line, and for the most part, only against our blocking schemes. When the real games hit, go look at those early season games and you will see our d-lineman getting clobbered by opposing o-linemen when they were moving laterally. Huge running lanes were getting created by every team we played early. Good news is that they got better at it, got their techniques down and played much better as the season went along.

Then as we got into the season the next problem arose. Injuries. Below is the projected depth chart of our front 4 before the start of the season as predicted by a combination of AL.com in august and freshmen who have unexpectedly played, with how many games they played/started in parentheses. So for example when you see Joker Gill (9/1) that means Joker played in 9 games and started 1. If someone is listed in Green, it means they are a true freshman playing big boy football in the trenches against grown men. If their name is in italics it means they were not on the two deep to start the season


DT:Kevin Penn (10/9), Antavious Woody (1,0) Jonathan Allen( 4,0) , Eamon Smalls (4/0)
DT:Fish McWilliams (11/11), Tyrique Howard (8,0) Miquon Merriweather (9/1)
SAM:Michael Fairbanks (11/11). Jalen Mayala (0,0) Joker Gill (9/1) , Emmanuel Waller (8/0)
RUSH: Desmond Little(11,7) Michael Moore (10/8) Kendall Johnson (11,1) Tyler Thomas (3/0)


Now, I may be missing some, but looking at the above it should be obvious at a glance that we have missed a ton of games collectively on the defensive line due to injuries (and in one players case, temper tantrum) AND that we have had to give a metric crapton of snaps to true freshmen who in a perfect world would not have had to play on the line of scrimmage until they had a year of weight training and nutrition under their belt.

This doesnt even account for the players who are playing at well under 100% due to injuries but who havent missed any games because of it. It doesnt account for players who transferred out just before the season (Drew Tuazama has played in 4 games for South Carolina) or power five transfers who are on the roster but havent played (Jamin Graham transferred from Nebraska via Jax St, and Antavious Woody from FSU played only against Navy.) The above also gives credit to players who played in a game, but only for a few plays before getting injured.


Now that is just one position group and its not even the hardest hit line of scrimmage we have, the offensive line chart looks worse.

Woody is on the OL now.

Got 19 guys for a 4 base set ( 20 counting Graham who hasn't played) 4 leaving

SDE : Fairbanks/Johnson/Waller/Thomas/Mayala/ ( Graham)
NT : Howard/ McWilliams / Smalls/ Milfort
DT : Penn/Gill/Merriweather/Knight/Allen (Williams)
JLB : Little/Moore/Eason/Jones/Harris

Little and Penn both return with 4-5 sacks if NIL money doesn't tempt them. See no need for youth this class just move after guys around and sign JuCos. Corey Clark would start immediately. And maybe that Colorado bounceback Williams.

(11-22-2023 08:28 PM)UABFAN23 Wrote:  We tried the Rudy experiment with Goode and Sorrells instead. lol. And Rowell.

Then wonder why we defend the pass when it comes to RBs and TEs. Wilder was one of the worse cover LBs I've seen. Back to this year its seems we've wasted Smyre RS. Also T. Brown looks to be a special teamer unless I'm missing him on defense.

I personally like what I've seen from the DC. We've been multiple from 4-3,3-4,3-3-5,or 4-2-5. Just don't have guys in the right position. Swoopes has played three spots in the secondary helps his draft stock. Got 5 really good CBs.

We had the talent at Corner to press but whoever lined up at safety next to Swoopes has left the field open for Slants and verticals. If you arent solid at LB or Safety, you’ll never be a good defense. We’ve regressed ever since they forced Moll inexplicably to safety.

Credit to Shrader for being the most consistent position coach and recruiter over the years.

(11-22-2023 08:51 PM)UABFAN23 Wrote:  We had the talent at Corner to press but whoever lined up at safety next to Swoopes has left the field open for Slants and verticals. If you arent solid at LB or Safety, you’ll never be a good defense. We’ve regressed ever since they forced Moll inexplicably to safety.

Credit to Shrader for being the most consistent position coach and recruiter over the years.

Rowell got beat like a drum this year. He's starting to turn the corner though first year truly playing. Think we will roll with a nickel corner next year, instead of a nickel safety. Seems we're in on some good CB talent.

Coach Williams left took all the team's physicality to Maryland. We've been finesse and cutesy wootsy since.

Think Sione called the right calls and adjusted toward the end of the season, guys just didn't make the plays. It was our supposed best CB getting bombed on for wins, or losing his footing not Sione.

Defense gotta figure out personnel ( Mayala and Fauntroy), and get scholarship numbers right at all 5 spots.

I think the case for Sione is much less about anything the defense did on the field this year, but the fact that he was left with a bare cupboard and hadn’t had a fair shake yet in terms of talent, depth, or experience.

I will agree that the defense has looked better to end the year and that does give me some hope.

Other than that, the defense has shown me very little this year, and I am still very dubious about Sione at best.

(11-23-2023 08:58 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I think the case for Sione is much less about anything the defense did on the field this year, but the fact that he was left with a bare cupboard and hadn’t had a fair shake yet in terms of talent, depth, or experience.

I will agree that the defense has looked better to end the year and that does give me some hope.

Other than that, the defense has shown me very little this year, and I am still very dubious about Sione at best.

I know it's a long shot, but a shutout road win would be nice right now.

It wasn’t just the defensive personnel problems. Opponents had a lot to do with it the struggles early. Playing all the best teams, and most experienced teams, to start the season didn’t give that defense any opportunities to gain confidence. Schedule was literally laid out in the WORST possible order for a young team.