Why will the Alabama defense be better/worse/the same under Golding? Make your case!

Bamabuzzard

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I think most of us can agree that there was a point during last season that many of us came to the sickening conclusion that our defensive coordinator was over his head and our defense had some major cracks in the foundation. Now that 2018 is over and we look forward to the 2019 season. Do you think our defense will be better under Pete Golding, worse or "meh, about the same"? Make your case for which ever you choose. Ready, set, GOOOO!!!!!
 

DogPatch

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Definitely better under Golding that Tosh. I think you only need to refer to Saban's comments on how Golding is one of the best defensive minds he's ever interviewed.
 

deliveryman35

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I predict it will be great....until November. Until that point, we will not have faced anyone that has the talent level to even compete with us.
 
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Ole Man Dan

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Definitely better under Golding that Tosh. I think you only need to refer to Saban's comments on how Golding is one of the best defensive minds he's ever interviewed.
IMO: Golding is a better teacher than Tosh.
Just my opinion, but I see Golding as a better communicator than Tosh.
For what ever reason it looks like our players respond better to Golding.
OR... Is it just that I'm a big fan of Golding, and expecting great things.

Like in 'Cool Hand Luke'...
Last year there was 'A Failure To Communicate'. (Room for improvement)
 

Ole Man Dan

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I expect better results this year.
For whatever reason our guys didn't respond as well to Tosh as they seem to do under
Golding. Communication issues?

I agree with Delivery Man 35... We may have to wait till November to see if I'm correct.
 

4Q Basket Case

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I predict better.

Secondary returns a lot more experience than last year, and the DL is looking really strong, even though we'll definitely miss Q. OLB is looking good, too.

Other than Moses, ILB is a problem. A couple of the youngsters appear to have developed well, but there's a reason Moseley is still running 1st team. Depth will be an issue there until the young guys get some battle time.

Most of that would be true even if Tosh were still here. I don't know enough about the intricacies of the game to assess technical ability, but if Saban says Golding is among the best technicians he's dealt with, that's good enough for me. The players do seem to respond better to him, which leads me to think he's a better teacher / communicator.

Golding is a good recruiter, though probably not at Tosh's level. No shame there -- Lupoi was one of the best in the country on that front. But the overall mix is more what we need, especially this year with needing some ILBs to grow up fast.
 

RollTide_HTTR

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It will be better if everyone stays healthy. This defense will be more talented to than last years even with losing a couple of guys. Should have a better edge rush this year and better group of CBs. (again assuming everyone stays healthy)
 

B1GTide

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I have no confidence in Golding as a coach or DC. But that doesn't mean that your defense will not improve. It will simply because you improved the coaching staff and the players are more experienced - they will also be hungry.

I am not saying that he will do poorly. I am just saying that I don't see what Saban or anyone else sees in him that inspires such confidence. If he proves himself this season, I will happily eat crow.
 

81usaf92

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I think we will be better in the secondary, but our ILBs and Dline still are a pretty huge concern. We probably wont see how good we are until later in the season. But again I think our best defense is going to be Tua again.
 

Go Bama

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I have no confidence in Golding as a coach or DC. But that doesn't mean that your defense will not improve. It will simply because you improved the coaching staff and the players are more experienced - they will also be hungry.

I am not saying that he will do poorly. I am just saying that I don't see what Saban or anyone else sees in him that inspires such confidence. If he proves himself this season, I will happily eat crow.
Why? I don’t know very much about him.
 

TideEngineer08

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It would be hard to get worse (saying this from the perspective of Alabama under Nick Saban. Obviously for most programs, it could get a LOT worse).

I don't have any particular faith in Golding. I thought we got worse whenever he supposedly took over making the defensive calls, but our competition had certainly gotten better by that point. Like all of you, I'm encouraged by the secondary and worried about the front 7. Tua and company are probably going to have to outscore the better teams we play, and that might not come until the postseason.
 

Bamabuzzard

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This is why I don't have as much confidence as some on this site.
Here's how I'm viewing this. Coach Saban has publicly praised him about his football IQ so to speak. Unless I missed it, it is still speculation that Golding was calling the plays midseason on. If he was and Coach Saban is still able heap praise on him as a coach after the fact and promote him to DC. Then either we're missing a piece of the puzzle from a fan's standpoint or Coach Saban is starting to slip.
 

Con

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Here's how I'm viewing this. Coach Saban has publicly praised him about his football IQ so to speak. Unless I missed it, it is still speculation that Golding was calling the plays midseason on. If he was and Coach Saban is still able heap praise on him as a coach after the fact and promote him to DC. Then either we're missing a piece of the puzzle from a fan's standpoint or Coach Saban is starting to slip.
I am betting that we the fans are missing something.
 

TideEngineer08

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Here's how I'm viewing this. Coach Saban has publicly praised him about his football IQ so to speak. Unless I missed it, it is still speculation that Golding was calling the plays midseason on. If he was and Coach Saban is still able heap praise on him as a coach after the fact and promote him to DC. Then either we're missing a piece of the puzzle from a fan's standpoint or Coach Saban is starting to slip.
The competition did improve drastically over the second half of the season, especially the last 3 games. So there is that. Also, the defense may have slipped too far into disarray to have been saved by that point in time.
 

Bamabuzzard

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The competition did improve drastically over the second half of the season, especially the last 3 games. So there is that. Also, the defense may have slipped too far into disarray to have been saved by that point in time.
I'm also one who believes the problem wasn't all coaching (though I think the majority of it was). I think there were some players who never fully understood the intricacies of the defense and never improved as the season went on. I can name two that seemed to be lost on the pre-set of a lot of defensive snaps.
 

JustNeedMe81

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Yes, I expect defense to improve under Golding. Last year there was too much confusion going on with Tosh and Peter. When Tosh gave up playcalling to Peter, it was too late to make adjustments on the field because at that point, they were like halfway into season. With full offseason under Golding's belt and with better mentor from experienced coaches, I expect Golding to be real good with playcalling this fall. Lot of things that went wrong with defense were mostly on coaching, development of the players and lack of efforts from some players. So that should be corrected and we will be okay.
 

JustNeedMe81

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This is why I don't have as much confidence as some on this site.
You have to keep that in mind that We really don't know what went on behind the scene. Who developed the game plan? Who called the plays during the game?

After some early struggles during the season, Saban stripped Lupoi of defensive play-calling responsibilities and handed them over to co-defensive coordinator Pete Golding, according to sources
Saban had poached Golding from UT-San Antonio in the offseason in part to alleviate concerns about Lupoi’s inexperience with the secondary and as a play-caller. Still, word is Lupoi seemed overwhelmed during practices and didn’t totally grasp situational play-calling. While he was still heavily involved in the defensive game-planning, there was no question Golding taking over play-calling represented a demotion of sorts for Lupoi barely into the start of his defensive coordinator stint.
source: https://www.al.com/alabamafootball/2019/01/why-tosh-lupoi-leaving-alabama-was-long-expected.html

We don't know what game Golding took over the playcalling, but if you look at the stats for the first 5 games: We really struggled to stop the total offense of opponent such as Lousiville, Arkansas State, TAMU, Louisiana and I think and this is my guess that Golding took over the playcalling from that point on. Our run defense improved significantly until Citadel game and after them, our run game suffered for the next five game. Our passing game since Citadel suffered as well.

Bottom line: I think Golding made adjustments and we did improved, but in the final few games, the team lost focus and we played sloppy for a while. With the experienced staff, the team should be more focused, and their fundamental skill should be improved.
 

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