Nick Saban calls for defense to improve tackling during fall camp

Nick Saban isn’t too keen on his defense’s performance, namely their effort, during the Crimson Tide’s second scrimmage over the weekend. Saban has already identified the problem, and called out his defense to potentially motivate them to start performing to the Alabama standard.

“Just about any time something bad happens, and by bad I mean an explosive play, it’s either about missed tackles or mental errors,” Saban said. “I think we have gotten better at eliminating some of those, but one thing that I don’t think we did as well in the second scrimmage as we did in the first is to tackle. That goes back to how you practice.

“We’ve never really had a practice where you tackle people, but you have to wrap them. You need to get in position to tackle them … we didn’t do that consistently. Then [in-game] when you have to tackle people, you do it efficiently. It’s something that we’ve really emphasized with our players this week.”

Last week after the first scrimmage, Saban said that his top goal of every fall camp is to have his players create good habits. It’s the time to embrace the grind and fully commit to his vision. For the defense, tackling efficiency is a part of that.

Of course, gauging Alabama’s talent level at the moment is tough, as roster turnover is an annual issue for the Crimson Tide. After another wave of proven stars moved on to the NFL in last April’s draft — most notably defensive anchor Will Anderson — Saban is calling on younger talent to step up ahead of the new college football season.

Over his three seasons in Tuscaloosa, Anderson posted 204 tackles, 34.5 sacks, four pass deflections, a forced fumble and one pick-six.

That type of production is not easy to replace, but it’s Alabama; Nick Saban annualy churns five-star recruits out of each class like no other coach in the country. One of the most important things to Saban every year is developing the inexperienced players on his roster for next-man-up purposes. It’s turned the Crimson Tide into a well-oiled machine in that aspect.

In all reality, Alabama will likely be just fine playing their younger talent. Many expect they’ll cruise to another 10-plus win season and will look to surpass those pesky Georgia Bulldogs that have uprooted the Crimson Tide’s status as the nation’s standard over the past two years. If they meet again in the SEC Championship, both teams should prepare for a slobber-knocker.

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