ben davis

Previously: Offense

Resources: My charting, Alabama game notes (Michigan's still not available—I bet not doing your homework is why you had to go to an SEC school, you amateur SID), Alabama roster, CFBstats

The film: Still Iron Bowl.

Personnel: My diagram:

PDF Version, full-size version (or click on the image)

So you guys I figured out where all the defensive tackles and cornerback-ish safeties have gone to. Every damn one of them is on the lying depth chart for Alabama:

DJ Dale hasn't played much since suffering a leg injury two months ago, and not at all in the last two games. They're lately starting superstar DE/DT Raekwan Davis (+13/-2) next to unexciting NG/DE Phidarian Mathis (+4/-4), and rotating in RS freshman NG Christian Barmore (+13/-8) liberally. As the scores suggest Barmore is a young Willie Henry: ludicrously strong and disruptive—especially as a pass rusher—but once he gets there it's 60/20 if he'll run past the play or fall on his face. True freshman SDEs Byron Young (+1/-3) and Justin Eboigbe (+3/-0) split the scant snaps available to them, but Bama played half their snaps with just two down linemen, and a handful of the three-down snaps with the group from the paragraph above. Young's –3 was all from one very freshman play when he chased after a zone-read running back like it's 1999.

The OLBs are quasi-defensive ends. They call the weakside one the JACK, where Anfernee Jennings (+12/-2) is closer to a traditional DE, but an extremely strong and athletic one who's expected to be drafted the first day this spring. More of an edge setter than edge rusher, Jennings is murder on any zone read run to his side. Normal SAM Terrell Lewis (+11/-2.5) has chosen to sit out the Citrus Bowl, and while that's totally understandable given his injury history, losing his 16 QB hurries is a big blow; nobody else on the team has more than half of that, and his backup, SAM Chris Allen, has barely played, though he generated some unwarranted practice buzz two springs ago.

The inside linebacker spots were already hit hard in preseason, forcing Bama to play with a pair of freshman in place of likely All-American MLB Dylan Moses and longtime backup WLB Josh McMillon. Instead they get two big true freshmen. MLB Shane Lee (+2/-4.5, +2/-3 in coverage), who played for Biff Poggi (and came up for the BBQ) last year, is the one with his head above water; WLB Christian Harris (+3/-6.5, +0/-4 coverage), a supposedly athletically gifted player who's not quite ready to be on the field, finally forced me to cyan him before going out with an injury in the 4th quarter. He was also caught jogging more than once when a sprint was necessary; I wonder if the later injury wasn't so later. Replacement WLB Ale Kaho (+2/-0, no coverage events) is a true sophomore and a good 30 pounds lighter. Everybody's swimming.

[After THE JUMP: Defensive backs Don Brown wanted]

Now Touring: The Jim Harbaugh Experience

Show, meet road. [Left via MLive, right via The Wolverine]

Remember last summer, when Penn State coach James Franklin ruffled some feathers by hosting satellite camps in Florida and Georgia? Jim Harbaugh is taking the same tack. The Wolverine's Brandon Brown reports that Michigan's coaches will run a camp at Prattville High School in Alabama, which produced 2015 signee Keith Washington, one June 5th. Four days later, they'll do the same in Dallas, per MLive's Nick Baumgardner. It wouldn't surprise at all if additional camps were set up in, say, Florida and California before all is said and done.

This is a great situation for Michigan, of course. The coaches get to see a ton of prospects in states they can't get to during the season, make connections with local coaches, and hopefully make some progress with recruits they've offered. There's really no downside to this that I can imagine.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]