Healthy Dylan Moses at peace and ready to return Alabama defense to form
By John Buhler
Alabama football standout Dylan Moses is back from an injury that cost him the 2019 season but he’s at peace and ready to lead the Crimson Tide defense back to elite status.
2019 was a tough year for Dylan Moses, Pete Golding and the rest of Alabama football.
Slated to win the SEC and reach the College Football Playoff again, Alabama caught one tough break after another. Though they still finished the year at 11-2, the Crimson Tide went 6-2 in SEC play and didn’t even get a New Year’s Six bowl invitation. Much of their struggles came on defense after Moses’ late summer injury. Golding and his side of the ball never fully recovered from it.
Dylan Moses and Pete Golding can bring the best out of each other in 2020.
In Dennis Dodd’s feature for CBS Sports, you can feel the disappointment from the Alabama linebacker and defensive coordinator had over how last season went. Moses was a first-round NFL Draft talent, certainly expected to leave school after his junior year. Golding was deemed the next promising branch to stem from the Nick Saban coaching tree. It all came crashing down.
Golding finally saw Moses become the vocal leader he needed to be as the star of his defense. Fate would have it the very next day in practice he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Golding scrambled and had to start a pair of underclassmen to offset Moses’ devastating loss. What ended up happening was Alabama had its worst defense since Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa in 2007.
Not wanting to end his Alabama career on a sour note, Moses decided to come back and give Alabama another shot at a national title in 2020. Even in the midst of the strangest year of our lives, Alabama is projected to beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2020 SEC Championship game and reach the College Football Playoff for the sixth time in seven years.
For this to happen, Moses will need to be a contender for the Butkus Award as the best linebacker in the country and Golding will need to be a contender for the Broyles Award as the best assistant coach in the nation. If both achieve those lofty goals, Moses will be a first-round pick in 2021 and Golding might be leading his own program before his 37th birthday.
This is a year where Alabama needs to go back to its Saban roots of winning with defense and the ground game. Though they have a great receiving corps headlined by DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle, it’s unsure how good Mac Jones will be at quarterback or if he’ll end up being usurped by true freshman Bryce Young by way of national powerhouse Mater Dei.
Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t play quarterback for the Crimson Tide anymore, but Najee Harris is still in the backfield. Steve Sarkisian will too be positioning himself for a head coaching opportunity. If Will Muschamp can’t get it done with the South Carolina Gamecocks, that might be a terrific landing spot for Sark, who was a candidate for head coaching jobs in last offseason’s cycle.
Ultimately, there’s not a ton of concern on the offensive side of the ball, outside of Jones’ finite ceiling or if Young is too raw coming over from his native Southern California. Sarkisian and his offense will figure it out. The question is if Moses and Golding will bring the best out of each other. Their futures ahead of them are very bright, but they must perform in 2020 for that to be a reality.
Healthy and at peace, it’s time for Moses to get to work to help make Golding’s defense hum.
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