Alabama Football opponent previews: Vanderbilt defense

The Vanderbilt defense has the ability to make life challenging for Alabama Football on Saturday. Head coach Clark Lea took over defensive coordinator responsibilities this season, and Lea has long been well regarded in football circles for his defensive acumen.

Prior to taking over in Nashville, Lea spent three seasons as Brian Kelly's defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, where he called the shots for a defense that was consistently ranked near the top of college football.

This would seem to be the perfect week to try and get the running game going with Jam Miller and Justice Haynes, but that could prove to be difficult.

Vanderbilt is big up front and takes pride in slowing down the ground game. They've limited opponents to just a 38% success rate on standard downs, and they're capable of getting after the QB, giving up only a 32% success rate on passing downs.

Junior DL Linus Zunk leads the way up front, and he was a gamewrecker in Vandy's big season opening win over Virginia Tech. A pair of transfers - Aeneas DiCosmo from Stanford and Khordae Sydnor from Purdue - will see a lot of time on the defensive line, too. Sydnor leads the team with two sacks and record a sack against Missouri the last time out.

True freshman DL Glenn Seabrooks III has been one of the best true freshmen in college football in 2024. At 340 pounds, Seabrooks is a load to deal with in the middle and could make running between the tackles difficult. Missouri had a difficult time handling him up front.

On the second level of Vanderbilt's 4-2-5 defensive scheme will be a pair of homegrown linebackers in Langston Patterson and Bryan Longwell and they are the 'Dores two leading tacklers. TCU transfer Randon Fontenette fills a hybrid type role, similar to the Rover/Husky positions in Kane Wommack's scheme.

In the secondary, Vanderbilt is led by preseason All-SEC safety CJ Taylor. At corner, the 'Dores have a former four-star recruit in sophomore corner Martel Hight, who also functions as the team's kick and punt returner. Hight had a punt return for a touchdown in the win over Alcorn State; he's dangerous with the ball in his hands.

Vanderbilt has been solid at keeping teams off schedule, but they've struggled on third down defensively. The 'Dores rank 113th in the country and give up first downs just under 48% of the time. Even after struggling on third down against Georgia, Alabama's offense is 26th in the country and converts at a 47% clip.

Vandy ranks middle of the pack in most defensive categories so they don't have a lot of obvious strengths, but that also means they don't have a lot of obvious weaknesses, either. They play fundamentally sound and tend to not beat themselves. They have been susceptible at times to big plays in the passing game, but they did a really good job limiting those against Missouri. They only gave up two pass plays of 20+ yards in that game.

Alabama's offense has still be pretty boom-or-bust. After a dominant first four possessions against Georgia where the Tide scored four touchdowns, the offense started to struggle and had several three-and-outs that ultimately led to Alabama's defense spending way too much time on the field in the second half, turning a blowout into a 50-50 game in the fourth quarter.

Vanderbilt has only given up 30+ points in a single game this year, and that was a strange road loss to Georgia State. They held Virginia Tech to 27, shutout FCS Alcorn State, and held a high powered Missouri offense to just 20 points in regulation.

Hopefully Alabama can avoid the rat poison, and there's been plenty of it in the wake of the Georgia game. This kind of game against a disciplined team can humble you quickly, and if the Tide wasn't serious enough in preparation, this game could end up being a lot closer than anyone expects.