Alabama Football: Jeremy Pruitt, Alabama Defense Very Undervalued

Five weeks into the season, all the talk has been focused on Alabama’s true freshman QB Jalen Hurts, offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin’s preference to jet sweeps and the depth that Alabama football has in it’s arsenal. Where’s the shout out to Jeremy Pruitt for continuing the Alabama tradition of “Defense wins championships”?

The business end of Alabama’s football team has dazzled the crowd in some ways, such as the number of non-offensive touchdowns that have been scored this season. But in the shadow naturally created with a puzzling, yet effective offense, the defensive end of the ball, along with defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, becomes one of the things most undervalued by fans, experts and pundits alike.

ICYMI: Get Off My Lawn, Blake Barnett

It makes me feel bad for a guy like Pruitt because he just doesn’t get enough credit.

He has to follow up Kirby Smart, a guy who was in the position for 7 seasons. Pruitt, in the meantime, spent 5 seasons at Alabama before moving in 2013 to become the DC at Florida State. It’s not like this is a new kid on the block. So where is the love for Pruitt and his mean, lean defensive machine?

Defensive coordinator is like one of the positions at any workplace that is important to the daily workflow, but is not acknowledged a whole lot. Everybody has had or has seen someone with one of those positions. If it works well, it goes unnoticed. If it suddenly doesn’t work well, then the entire blame is on that person.

Unfortunately for Pruitt, it will fall on him when the defense fails.

It’s not like Pruitt came into this job with much negativity either. There were not many complaints from Alabama fans after the former Georgia DC decided to return as a part of Nick Saban’s staff. He has some very large shoes to fill, but he worked under Saban before. So, the only question left was how much of a drop off from Smart would there be for Alabama’s D?

Let’s look at the body of work so far this season by the Alabama defense. They have allowed 10 or less points in four of the five games played. They have 13 sacks so far this season (about 2.5 per game) and 24 total tackles for loss. The D also has 5 forced fumbles, 3 interceptions and has allowed just one TD in the red zone. I’d say that’s not much of a drop off at all.

Oh, but we also forgot: Nick Saban is a defensive-minded head coach.

Yes, Saban is a man who likes to have a hand in the development of the defense. Saban gets a lot of the credit for making the Alabama defense what it is. It sometimes even seems Pruitt (and Smart, to a degree) plays second fiddle. Pruitt is simply executing what he’s been charged with, with Saban’s framework in mind.

But here’s the kicker: Even if Alabama’s defense continues to do as well as it has, it will take a few years before Pruitt is acknowledged as the great coordinator he is. If he stays at Bama for several years, the “Well, they aren’t his own players” or “He’s only succeeding because of the talent level of Alabama” comments will be long gone.

So while we continue to pour praise to Lane Kiffin, Jalen Hurts and the rest of the offense, shoot some shout-outs to the hard-working defense as well. Let it be known that Jeremy Pruitt will be a great coordinator at Alabama if he continue to work at it. Maybe, just maybe, after a few years people will start to recognize how great a coach Pruitt really is.

He’s just gotta get through this season first. Things only get tougher from here and it will be interesting if the defense holds. If it does, Pruitt will get the recognition he deserves.