Alabama Football: Pair of Tims leading defensive line resurgence

Alabama Football looked much improved, and far more disruptive defensively, in its 24-10 win over Ole Miss in week four. The Crimson Tide front seven essentially shut down the Ole Miss running game, allowing just 56 yards on 1.9 YPC, and harassed quarterback Jaxson Dart all afternoon.

While the linebackers are the strength of the defense for Alabama Football and draw most of the national attention, it is the defensive line that toils in silence and allows the ‘backers to operate at max capacity.

In Bama’s most recent game, however, the defensive line did more than that. It was a very aggressive group throughout the contest, and two Tims have emerged as leaders of the group.

Heading into the season, redshirt senior Justin Eboigbe and sophomore Jaheim Oatis were lauded as the best players on the Alabama defensive line. Eboigbe and Oatis have certainly been good this year, but senior Tim Smith and redshirt sophomore Tim Keenan III may be beginning to separate themselves as standouts.

Tim Smith leads all Alabama defensive linemen with 15 tackles and 1.5 sacks this season, and has been particularly active in the last two games. He recorded a career-high nine tackles at USF in what amounted to a homecoming game for the Gifford, Florida native. He followed up that performance with three tackles and a career-high 1.5 sacks in the win over Ole Miss.

As a player who has struggled with consistency and stringing together productive performances in his career, this was likely the best two-game stretch he has had since his freshman year.

On Alabama’s 2020 national championship team, Smith was a very promising freshman that provided a lot of energy in his rotational minutes on the defensive line. In the regular season finale of that year, he recorded three tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a sack against Arkansas before recovering a fumble to force a turnover against Florida in the SEC Championship game.

Many would say that Smith has never quite lived up to the potential he showed in that 2020 season, but now it looks like the senior is coming into his own. If he can continue to string together performances like his last two, he will be on a lot of All-SEC teams by the end of the season.

Another surging defensive lineman for the Tide is nose guard Tim Keenan III. Keenan III has the stature of a prototypical nose; relatively short and stout, and strong as an ox. However, he is also a plus-athlete, and is much quicker than he looks.

The Birmingham native got a lot of buzz in the offseason, and has now put together a pair of really good games against quality competition. He made five tackles and notched a QB pressure in Bama’s loss to Texas, and had three tackles and three pressures against Ole Miss.

It felt like Keenan III was chasing Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart around all afternoon, just narrowly missing on a couple sack opportunities. Even though he has yet to record a sack this season, his presence has certainly been felt. A couple of his pressures against Ole Miss caused incompletions even though Dart had a wide-open receiver. For the season, his four hurries rank second on the team behind only Dallas Turner and lead all Crimson Tide defensive linemen.

After a dominant performance against Ole Miss, the defense for Alabama Football now has the challenge of proving it can play to that standard on a weekly basis. With a pair of Tims leading the way up front, Bama fans should be confident that it can do so.