Alabama Football: Most important Crimson Tide assistant

The performances of all Alabama football assistants are integral to team success. The same is true for many others on the Alabama staff. In preseason talk, much has been said about Alabama football coaches and pressure.

Those frequently discussed as being under ‘pressure’ are Tommy Rees and Kevin Steele, as well as Nick Saban.  Yes, they must deal with pressure, but that is the nature of the profession. Successful college football coaches eat pressure as a regular diet. The best of them are driven by their internal pressure to succeed.

Alabama football fans can forget the pressure issue. It is irrelevant. Instead, we can look at what Alabama football assistants are most important to a successful season. Three are considered below. That does not mean the other seven Crimson Tide assistants are less important. Rather it suggests unless the three detailed below produce outstanding results, the other seven Tide coaches cannot make up for their deficiencies.

Alabama Football Coordinators

The first two are the Tide’s Coordinators, Kevin Steele and Tommy Rees. Alabama’s defensive players appear to share the enthusiasm of Crimson Tide fans about Kevin Steele. Steele represents an Alabama return to the defensive toughness of the past. Simply stated, the 2023 Alabama defense is expected to attack with a freedom not always available in Pete Golding’s schemes. Certainly, they will still read and react, but part of their purpose will be to quickly take options away from opposing offenses via power and speed.

A challenge for Steele (and Saban) will be to find each game’s necessary balance of defensive complexity and ‘knock the other guy in the dirt’ mentality. Though roster inexperience will cause growing pains, the Tide’s defensive talent should make it one of the nation’s best.