College Football: 25 breakout players to watch in 2016
By John Buhler
If the Alabama Crimson Tide are going to repeat as College Football Playoff National Champions in 2017, they will need to reload on the defensive end in the front seven. The one player most likely to rise to the occasion in the Alabama front seven has to be junior defensive end Da’Shawn Hand.
Hand has appeared in 14 games for the Crimson Tide the last two seasons. In a minimal rotational role, Hand has 23 total tackles, 8.5 for a loss of yardage, and five quarterback sacks. If Alabama does reload in the front seven, Hand will be a big reason for their continued dominance.
What might actually end up helping Hand during his junior season is that Alabama’s strength defensively is in its secondary in 2016. Head coach Nick Saban is an elite secondary coach and so is new defensive coordinator in Jeremy Pruitt.
Losing Kirby Smart and Mel Tucker to Georgia would be too tough for most programs to overcome, but the Saban/Pruitt combination is more than capable of putting its secondary in positions to succeed in 2016.
With what looks like an elite defensive backfield in Tuscaloosa this season, this will allow the unproven players like Hand in the front seven to get those extra split seconds to drive opposing quarterbacks into the turf. All it will take for Hand to become a fantastic pass rusher for the Crimson Tide is a few dominating plays in the opposition’s backfield. He could be an All-SEC caliber defensive player as a junior in 2016.
Next: 3. Jake Browning.