Dallas Turner explains his leadership approach, how Alabama has grown closer this season

It’s no secret that the Alabama Crimson Tide are a little bit of a younger team this season, with key veteran leaders like Bryce Young, Will Anderson, and others moving on to the NFL this offseason. Head coach Nick Saban has even spoken about the challenge and enjoyment he’s gotten out of coaching this year’s younger squad.

EDGE Dallas Turner has become one of the team’s newer leaders this season, and when he made an appearance on ‘The Paul Finebaum Show’ on Wednesday, he opened up about his leadership style.

“First and foremost you gotta lead by example by doing the little things right and by just being consistent every day in what you do,” Turner said. “Putting in a lot of work every day, putting in extra work and stuff like that. When you guys see older guys do things like that they tend to follow that and the energy is everywhere on the team. It’s just kind of a monkey see monkey do thing though, but you know it’s in a good direction.”

Turner has certainly been leading by example this season, and leading the SEC in sacks this year with eight of them through eight games, which also ranks fifth in the nation across all of college football. He’s also added 34 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles to his stat line, playing a crucial role in Alabama’s defense that’s been having one of its most impressive seasons in recent history.

Team chemistry goes hand in hand with great leadership within a team, a department in which Turner revealed the Crimson Tide also has all their bases covered in as well.

“I mean honestly with the type of leaders we have on this team and the type of camaraderie we have as a unit, as a whole team it’s a lot of good energy on and off the field,” Turner said. “You’re seeing a lot more guys hang out with each other off the field, doing little things like just getting something to eat, or going to the bowling alley, or something like that. It’s just little things that we do on and off the field that make us the team that we are now.”

The Crimson Tide have had to lean on each other heavily this year, finding themselves losing at halftime in three of their five conference games so far this season.

But in each game, they’ve overcome the adversity and left the stadium with a win, and will look to remain undefeated in conference play following their bye week as they host LSU on November 4 next Saturday.