Byron Young reveals Alabama's mindset on forcing more turnovers

Alabama‘s defense has been historically stifling for the past few seasons, known for stopping the run, getting to the quarterback, and generating turnovers. For the most part, the Crimson Tide have shown that they can do all of those things this season except the latter, as they have forced zero turnovers so far through week 2. Defensive lineman Byron Young spoke about the defense’s mindset regarding turnovers.

“It’s discussed a lot, I think that’s something that we gotta focus on more. I think it’s something we need to be more intentional about just in practice at times, because we do a turnover circuit every single day and it’s something that we take pride in and it’s something that we know that we’ve been known for in the past,” Young said. “So it’s something that bothers us and it’s something we really have to concentrate on going forward.”

Heading into week 3 of last season, the Crimson Tide had already created four turnovers, two interceptions each against Miami and Mercer. Alabama has gotten their hands on the football, with 3 pass breaks up in each of their first two ball games, but has also missed some opportunities to recover fumbles when they were forced.

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The most important statistic for the Crimson Tide is their record, as they remain an undefeated 2-0 and are ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25 Poll. But hopefully for their defense, they can create some turnovers moving forward and will get their next opportunity to force some against Louisiana-Monroe this Saturday, a team who’s only given up the ball to their opponent once so far this season.

Demarcco Hellams addresses added motivation by falling in the AP Poll

The Alabama Crimson Tide dropped in the most recent AP Top 25 Poll from No. 1 in the country to No. 2 following their narrow victory over Texas this weekend. Senior safety Demarcco Hellams was asked if the drop in the ranking would be used as motivation moving forward, and his answer probably didn’t surprise Alabama fans.

“No, self-motivation. We don’t need any motivation here, poll doesn’t matter to us, all that matters to us is going 1-0 every week. It doesn’t matter where you’re ranked until the end of the season so that’s it,” Hellams said.

One of the key’s to Alabama’s historic success under Nick Saban has been avoiding outside noise, which the head coach commonly refers to as ‘rat poison. Heading into the season as the No. 1 team in the polls was also viewed as rat poison according to edge Will Anderson, and it sounds like being leapfrogged by UGA and being No. 2 falls into the same category for the Crimson Tide.

Hellams had a strong performance last week versus Texas, leading the team with 10 total tackles along with a pass breakup and a tackle for loss. Despite his strong showing, the team as a whole had some struggles, as they were penalized 15 times for 100 yards and the offense struggled to get into and maintain a rhythm.

Thankfully for Alabama, some late-game heroics on their final offensive drive of the game led by quarterback Bryce Young and a clutch 33-yard field goal by Will Reichard with 10 seconds left in regulation lifted the Tide in a one-point victory. But they’ll surely need to have some stronger showings this season if they want to return to the top spot of the AP Poll in the future.