Who was leader of Alabama Defense?

[dantheman41]

When everyone on here wanted Courtney Upshaw, everyone said he is the leader of the best defense in football.

When everyone was high on Donta Hightower, he was the leader of the best defense in football.

Now that everyone wants Mark Barron, he is the leader of the best defense in country.

So who REALLY was the leader of the best defense in football?

[CATCH17]

Probably hightower since he was a 2 year captain.

[Teague31]

Kirby Smart

[jswalker1981]

Nick Saban.

[Wulfman]

Both Barron and Hightower were team captains for the last two years, so by that definition they were both leaders.

Barron was the one who was calling out adjustments in the defensive backfield, and Hightower did some of that with the front seven, if you watch the film.

Don't really see where Upshaw did either.

[theogt]

Does it matter? They got a national championship because they had talent, not leadership.

[Dcowboy84]

Does it matter? They got a national championship because they had talent, not leadership.


but the Cowboys don't need talent, we need LEADERS!:rolleyes:

[visionary]

Does it matter? They got a national championship because they had talent, not leadership.

sorry but i gotta disagree here

they won because they had talent and leadership

talent is the ship, leadership is the rudder, both are fairly useless without the other but together they can do great things

this talk of separation of talent and leadership is just that, talk
talent is a given when talking about leadership
never seen an effective leader who was not talented
he/she may not be the most talented of the group but the leader has to be talented

[theogt]

Nope. They had good coaching and talent. Leadership didn't have squat to do with anything. Leadership is a figment of your imagination. Jumping in front of and defending a pass, pushing the pocket to pressure a QB and tackling a back for a loss do not require leadership, they require talent. And the Alabama defense was filled to the brim in talent.

[visionary]

Nope. They had good coaching and talent. Leadership didn't have squat to do with anything. Leadership is a figment of your imagination. Jumping in front of and defending a pass, pushing the pocket to pressure a QB and tackling a back for a loss do not require leadership, they require talent. And the Alabama defense was filled to the brim in talent.

leadership by another name is still leadership

coaching is a form of ledadership

leaders know the strengths and weaknesses of their 'team' and those of the opponent and then they put their team in a position to make it more likely for them to succeed, that is exactly what coaches do

of course, the 'team' still has to execute the plan (this takes talent)

[theogt]

leadership by another name is still leadership

coaching is a form of ledadership

leaders know the strengths and weaknesses of their 'team' and those of the opponent and then they put their team in a position to make it more likely for them to succeed, that is exactly what coaches do

of course, the 'team' still has to execute the plan (this takes talent)No, coaching is coaching. Coming up with a game plan isn't leadership, it's coaching.

Leadership is sprinkling magic fairy dust on players.

[AsthmaField]

Living fairly close to Tuscaloosa and being around a butt-load of Alabama fans (some of which are as fanatical about Alabama as we are the Cowboys) and watching their games, I'd have to say their defensive leader was:

Hightower 1A
and
Barron 1B

Hightower led with emotion and by blowing up ballcarriers. He is as physical a college player as I've seen in a long time.

Barron led with emotion but also was more of a coach on the field. He excelled at getting guys lined up and was a guy the coaches could trust to implement what they coached during the week.

Both were the backbone of that Alabama defense.

[CowboysYanksLakers]

Donte Hightower without question...