Today’s segment is linebackers. I did some research and found out some information that’s quite interesting.
We lost our smartest player this year to the NFL. Rolando McClain controlled our defense and made tons of great plays for us. He always seemed to be around the ball, and could break up and intercept passes. It’s going to be hard to fill his shoes.
We also lost Eryk Anders. He wasn’t a great player, but he stepped in for Dont’a Hightower last season and still kept us in the national championship hunt. He’s best remembered for his hit on Garrett Gilbert that forced a fumble, leading to a TD that sealed the national championship.
Cory Reamer was another decent player that stepped up and played well last season.
Dont’a Hightower recorded 62 tackles in his first season, fourth on the team. Last season, he played in three games before tearing his ACL, MCL, and Meniscus. The recovery was supposed to take a year. He was participating in spring training six months later. He is back to about 90% and was not witheld at all in the Spring Scrimmage game. He will be ready to be back on the field come fall. His injury may have proved to be a blessing in disguise.
It forced freshman Nico Johnson to start for the Tide in the last 11 games. And Bama’s defense didn’t skip a beat. Now Dont’a will return and Johnson will have a year of experience.
Jerrell Harris. There is a lot of speculation about this player. He was a backup last season, but was suspended for most of the games. He got some game experience in his freshman season, but not much. He is reportedly good in practice. We’ll get to see what he can do in a game this season as he will start for the Tide at SAM linebacker.
Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Chris Jordan………… Anyone?……….. Me neither. I actually have almost no analysis for you on this player, besides that he led the team in tackles against North Texas with six on special teams and defense combined. But he will start at WILL linebacker for the Tide. This is straight from Nick Saban himself.
Courtney Upshaw showed great flashes last year as backup linebacker. He will be really good for our rotation. He was also featured on bleacherreport.com’s “Most Unknown SEC Defensive Weapons.”