re: Pete Golding.....

quote:

---

2019: 17
2020: 33

---

Well, our 2020 defense was absolutely better than 2019. No doubt about that.

And any defensive coordinator we had on staff would have had some struggles in 2019 given our personnel situation. We started 2 true freshmen ILB in a system that requires complex calls by the ILB on the fly at the LOS. They weren't ready for that. On top of that, we played a bunch of kids on the DL who also were not ready. It was not a good spot for him. However, he clearly had to learn how to communicate the things he knew about the system (which is basically everything) to the kids who had to run it (who basically knew nothing and had no experience). It led to a lot of confusion and a really frustrating season on that side of the ball.

With that said, we started 2020 with some of the same issues (though not as bad), and Golding did a really good job of making changes and simplifications and the defense played very well the last 2/3 of the season. There was visible improvement from individual players and in the overall team defense.

I think Golding has a bright future ahead of him, I'm just not sure he is quite there yet. And I think Saban would admit that Golding was probably a little bit less prepared to take on the large task of being our DC than Saban thought he was back in 2018.