dallas turner

Previously: Alabama Offense 

While 'Bama's offense has had its ups-and-downs, the 'Bama defense has been a rock solid unit all season long. Boasting a hyper talented, NFL-ready secondary, the Crimson Tide have SP+'s #9 defense in the country. There are some weaknesses in the middle compared to past years, but the pass rush and secondary is legit and there's plenty to be frightened of here: 

The Film: We're sticking with the Georgia-Alabama tape for the defensive charting as well. Most recent game, a good performance for the defense, and it came against a high-level offense. Checks all the boxes. I will use some tape and reference observations while reviewing film from the other Alabama games this season, including Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee, Texas, and Auburn as well. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

Alabama's defensive line is headlined by its superstar EDGE talent, although we should point out that their two blue chip rushers don't play together all that much. Alabama tends to go with two DTs and their beefy SDE on standard downs, with only one of the two star rushers on the field. Only on passing downs do you see the SDE kick inside and be replaced on the perimeter by the other rusher. The two rushers that trade places as the stand-up EDGE are Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell. Both are starred on the diagram, though Turner gets the shield because he is projected for the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, while Braswell is more thought of as 2nd round range. Both are expert pass rushers and PFF doesn't differentiate much between their rushing abilities (89.8 vs. 88.6), nor could I find a difference in my review. Both are terrors I would like to see suiting up for the Detroit Lions in the near future. 

The rest of the DL is much less flashy, and it's the DT spot where you see arguably the biggest departure from the typical Alabama team. The foursome of Tim Keenan III, Tim Smith, Jaheim Oatis, and Damon Payne Jr. are all solid players but Alabama doesn't quite have that level of terrifying DT talent that they normally do. None are cyan'd, but none are starred either. Merely decent. The SDE that is nearly DT-sized is 292 lb. Justin Eboigbe, who I don't think has much rushing juice but is a good run defender from the outside and is comfortable moving inside on passing downs. He came close to a star, but ultimately fell short. Reserves on the edges include Quandarrius Robinson, who is occasionally spelling Braswell/Turner, and Jah-Marien Latham, who backs up Eboigbe. 

The linebacker position is rather ho-hum, a primarily three-man rotation of Deontae Lawson, Jihaad Campbell, and Trezmen Marshall. Lawson and Marshall were the nominal starters most of the season but Campbell has moved to take on the title of starter over Marshall late in the year. Campbell is their best coverage LB, an area the other two struggle, while Lawson is their best blitzer. They have varied skillsets and each are capable of making plays, but also being exploited in the right matchups. This positional group, like DT, is a bit of a step down from the usual Nick Saban defense. 

What is not a departure from the Saban standard is the secondary, where Alabama boasts the best cornerback tandem in college football. Kool-Aid McKinstry was a true freshman starter at CB on Alabama's 2021 national championship team and was immediately placed on NFL Draft radars, where he has stayed ever since. As expected, Kool-Aid will be a first round pick in 2024 and he's joined on the outside by Terrion Arnold, who has played very well this season too. I think Kool-Aid is a bit better than Arnold, with Arnold being the one more often targeted by opposing defenses, but the 6'0" Arnold has worked his way into the back-end of 1st round projections due to his play this season. If either outside corner has to miss a play, Trey Amos comes on in relief. He played a bit against Georgia and I honestly felt there was no visible drop-off from the starters. 

At safety, Alabama is rolling out starters at the opposite ends of the experience spectrum with 6th year Jaylen Key, a UAB transfer, starting next to mega-5* Caleb Downs, who is a true freshman. Downs has played exceptionally well this season and earns a star from me, impressive for a Tr Fr safety. Key I was less impressed with but I don't have anything particularly negative to say about him either. The DB starters as a whole log the most snaps on the defense, so there is little room for reserves, but next man up at S is Kristian Story, who splits Downs and Key in the middle in experience as a RS Jr. The HSP/nickel, which 'Bama calls the "STAR", is Malachi Moore. A fourth year player, Moore is both a figurative and literal star, excellent as a run defender and in coverage. This secondary has no real weakness and boatloads of NFL talent. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: how they do damage]

Last week I dumped 97 links on offensive recruiting for the class of 2021, and y'all said you were looking forward to the defensive one. Well the thing is the defensive side isn't nearly as set. There are a LOT of guys on the board, and the staff is constantly turning up more of them, so I'm going to have to split this up into three parts, and push 2022s to a fourth. Just remember you asked for this.

The Board:

The fellas again:

Icon	Name	Meaning
	Sad Josh	The genre of player with unrequited interest in Michigan. Unlikely to receive offers; most will eventually fade off the list and go to Duke or Michigan State or something.
	Nefarious Eduardo	Player is a longshot. Either they've declared someone else a leader publicly or popular opinion holds that they're likely to go to another school.
	Data	Either no opinion or Michigan is one of a fairly even group of chasing schools. Players in this category maintain no leader or change their leader frequently. The default category for players that we don't know much about yet.
	Happy Teeth	Players who have Michigan in a small leading group or have Michigan as a tenuous favorite. Should be regarded as a good shot, not a slam dunk.
	Mr. Blue	Player is either a verbal or is expected to be one sooner or later. Players with this designation are 65%+ to be Michigan commits.

The order is my interpretation of how likely they are to commit and how many recruiting points are being expended.

An *Expanded* Note on Stars: What I said last week: These are a general (not exact) average of a player's status among the recruiting services. Addition: The sites don't have two-stars anymore but I'm going to use the designation for certain low 3*s to differentiate between a guy in the 750s who'd still be in the top half of a Michigan State class, and one who's in the 1,000s or not even ranked.

An *Expanded* Note on Premium Info: What I said last week: No illicit sharing of said material will appear on this site. Players are listed with interested schools in their profiles; this information is public. Commitments are by definition public. Any assertions as to schools in the mix, decision dates, or leaders I will back up with links to the source of the information. Addition: There will always be more interesting information after the link. If you want that stuff, subscribe to their services. If you want one place to read what you could spend a few hours looking up for free on your own, this post is for you.

Defensive Tackle

Strap in, because there are a lot of guys to talk about here. In fact I left out another ten Shaun Nua stays in contact with. The guy likes to recruit.

Commits
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Previously
Dominick Giudice	NJ	**	Michigan		Hello. Harbaugh bait.
Targets
Player	State	Stars	Schools	Y/N	Previously
George Rooks	NJ	****	Cuse Michigan, PSU, Miami, Pitt, BC		Visited for PSU
Rayshaun Benny	MI	****	Michigan, Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State
Tywone Malone	NJ	****.5	OSU, Ole Miss, TAMU, UF		Baseball too
Jacob Schuster	WA	***	Cal, Stanford, Wash, Wazzu, Michigan
Jay Toia	CA	****	USC Commit
Derek Wilkins	CA	****	Cal, Stanford lead all the academics
Arden Walker	CO	***	Wis, Michigan, MSU, Iowa, ISU, Colorado, BC
Ikenna Ugbaja	MA	**	Michigan, Vandy, Cuse, Harvard
Ryan Keeler	IL	***	RU, Ole Miss, Michigan, entire Midwest		Best of Midwest star. Raves about UM. Iowa Visit.

NEEDS:

Major, and avoids "Dire" only because they got an elite guy and another guy close to it last year in Chris Hinton and Mazi Smith. They're also several years into their build-your-own DT program, and likely to start seeing the fruits of that labor by the time any 2021 commits step on campus. Any 2021 commit who can contribute immediately is, in the most plausible scenario, immediately competing with RS Jr Julius Welschof, RS Soph Michael Morris, and RS Fr Kris Jenkins to be Mazi's or Hinton's backup at the two most cycled positions in football.

The good news is the board looks way better than it did a few months ago, and things may change with the blue chips once Ohio State's had their fill. Welcome to Recruiting in the Modern Age. How's that NIL stuff going?

[After THE JUMP: is everyone an anchor?]