Before we start anointing Pruitt as better than Kirby, let's step back a minute. We won 4 national Championships with Kirby as our DC. Defense had always led the way in most of those years. Our defense and Kirby get a bad wrap from last year's game and mainly due to the 4th quarter that Clemson had and mainly their last three drives. It was tied at 24-24 with a little over 10 minutes to go and then it became a track meet. Our defense went to a somewhat prevent type defense after we took the 31-24 lead and played Clemson that way the rest of the game. We had allowed basically 300 yards and 24 points through 3-1/2 quarters and then on their last three possessions they went 61 yards for a FG, 75 yards for a TD, and 68 yards for a TD (204 yards and 16 points). Also remember that our defense was a little gassed in the 4th as we had to go back out there when Kenyan ran the kick back. However, our defense limited the big TD plays and made Clemson drive the ball for their points. Ole Miss had a similar run late in the game this year to make the score closer than it felt and racked up a lot of yards in the late 4th quarter. It happens.
I am happy with Coach Pruitt and I think he has had a fantastic year as our DC but it is not like he was left with nothing to work with. Our defense has evolved over the last 10 years and even though Smart and Pruitt are great DC's, as long as Saban is here, we are never going to have a bad defense.
