{"id":12690,"date":"2023-08-05T03:30:36","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T08:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=12690"},"modified":"2023-08-05T03:30:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T08:30:36","slug":"deontae-lawson-breaks-down-approach-of-new-alabama-defensive-coaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/deontae-lawson-breaks-down-approach-of-new-alabama-defensive-coaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Deontae Lawson breaks down approach of new Alabama defensive coaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deontae Lawson<\/a><\/strong> isn\u2019t simply learning defensive schemes this offseason. He\u2019s learning about his coaches. The Alabama<\/a> linebacker broke down the benefits inside linebackers coach Robert Bala<\/a><\/strong> and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele<\/a><\/strong> bring to the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came in, high-energy guys. Talking about Bala first, he [has] great energy, he\u2019s a great coach, he\u2019s very smart, so he\u2019s bringing some fire to the inside backers,\u201d Lawson told the press on Friday. \u201cKevin Steele, everybody knows Kevin Steele. He\u2019s a great guy, hard worker, good coach. He\u2019s just trying to bring the little things and make the little things right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alabama hired Bala after he spent one season as a defensive analyst at Liberty. Bala\u2019s expertise speaks for itself. In his lone season with Liberty<\/a>, Bala boosted the team to finish first nationally in tackles for loss per game (9.3) and No. 3 in sacks per game (3.46). <\/p>\n

Additionally, the Flames more than doubled their turnovers gained in 2022 from the previous season. Of course, Bala\u2019s resum\u00e9 pales in comparison to Steele\u2019s. This will be Steele\u2019s third stint on head coach Nick Saban\u2019s staff and his second as defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Steele served as Auburn\u2019s<\/a> defensive coordinator from 2016-2020. With Steele leading the defense, the Tigers ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring defense four times while producing 14 NFL Draft picks and multiple first-rounders.<\/p>\n

With his experience backing him, Steele brings one focus to the Crimson Tide\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cGenerate more turnovers which will lead to points, you know, really the same thing, but the little things. It\u2019s all about the little things, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As talented as Alabama was last season, it struggled to generate opponent turnovers<\/a>. The team forced just 14 turnovers all season, tying for 105th in the country. To reach the pinnacle of college football again, Alabama will need more. Saban believes Steele is the man for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Steele\u2019s a very experienced coach,\u201d Saban said<\/a> at SEC Media Days. \u201cHe\u2019s been a very successful defensive coordinator in our league for a number of years. He\u2019s been with us in the past on several occasions, so he understands ouR system of how we do things and what we do. So it was a combination of his knowledge and experience as well as his familiarity with how we do things that made it a good choice for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans will witness this \u201cgood choice\u201d first-hand on Sept. 2 when Alabama takes on Middle Tennessee State in its season opener.<\/p>\n

The post Deontae Lawson breaks down approach of new Alabama defensive coaches<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deontae Lawson isn\u2019t simply learning defensive schemes this offseason. He\u2019s learning about his coaches. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}