Alabama's Defensive Adjustment To Fast-Paced Offenses

The Crimson Tide defense has worked on streamlining the play-calling process to prepare the defense for faster offenses.

The Alabama Crimson Tide football program made a defensive adjustment over the past week. 

No, the team didn't change defensive coordinators, as Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin insinuated on Sunday. However, the coaching staff made a move to share defensive administration responsibilities in order to get plays called and the unit lined up in a timely fashion.

"This other thing that I hear floating around out there -- I'm sure you've seen the same reports that I've seen -- is Kevin Steele is the defensive coordinator. He has all the defensive coordinator responsibilities. The only thing that we tried to improve on from an administrative standpoint was gameday administration of getting the signals in quicker," said Saban on Monday. "That's the only thing that we worked on together as a staff. The whole staff made a contribution to it, and I think it was a lot better in this game than it was in the Texas game."

The change was certainly effective as Alabama managed to hold South Florida to just 87 yards rushing with five sacks and 10 tackles for loss. The Bulls managed to convert just 29% on third-down and were stopped on fourth-down four times.

“I just think everybody has to be urgent and get lined up. We really don’t have too much time to celebrate when we make a tackle or big play or anything like that," said Alabama safety Malachi Moore on Tuesday. "That’s one thing we’ve been focusing on in practice, just — even if the scout team’s not running back to ball are running fast tempo, we do that as a defense. Being conscieous, just running back to the ball and getting the call so it can translate to the game.”

Crimson Tide linebacker Deontae Lawson said that this coming week against the Ole Miss Rebels will be no different as Lane Kiffin is known to use pace as a weapon against defenses.

"We've had to deal with it the past couple weeks. Something we practice every day, so I feel like it's a same ole week," said Lawson. 

The Rebels are 11th in the nation in offensive yards through three weeks, averaging 526 yards per game and have averaged 64 offensive snaps per game. Kiffin is sure to be licking his chops as the Crimson Tide looks as vulnerable as ever, but the defensive focus is still the same, no matter who is actually calling the defensive plays. 

"We just try to get the signals in quicker like you said, just we can all get on the same page and execute our job," said Lawson.

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