Linebacker Christian Harris: "The Alabama Standard is Something We Talk About Every Single Day"

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama sophomore linebacker Christian Harris spoke to the media via Zoom on Monday, echoing defensive coordinator Pete Golding's desire to return the Crimson Tide defense to the 'Alabama standard.'

Harris, who started last season in the box as a true freshman due to fellow linebacker Dylan Moses suffering a season-ending injury last fall camp, discussed how the Crimson Tide's disappointing effort last year now serves as a motivating factor entering this fall.

"The Alabama standard is something we talk about every single day," Harris said. "Workouts, meetings — we gotta approach everything with that mentality that we want to be the best. Especially last season being 11-2, [for] Alabama that's not something that we would look back at and be happy about, be proud of. Of course we wanted to go undefeated. We wanted to win a national championship and that's the Alabama standard.

"We're working each and every day, coming in every day since we got back from that bowl game against Michigan we've been working [and] talking about it every single day and I think it's really been a really big motivating factor for us to keep us pushing and just wanting to get better."

Back on Aug. 21, Golding also spoke on his disappointment in his 2019 defense. While Alabama is used to the top spot in the SEC on defense, the 2019 team ranked fifth in the conference in total defense with 324.4 yards per game, seventh in rushing defense (137.5 yards per game), third in passing defense (187.2 yards per game) and third in scoring defense (18.6 points per game).

To Golding, those numbers simply don't meet the Alabama standard.

"[...] The five national championships, go back and average the defense," Golding said. "Guess what it was. No. 1 in the country. Everybody knows it. Defense wins championships. That’s why I came here, right, that’s why these kids came here, right. But we have an obligation to all the players and coaches that came before us to meet the standard, and the standard’s going out and working harder than everybody else. It hasn’t changed. Doing it the right way, having great discipline, mental toughness, physical toughness, right, playing fast, smart and physical. So, we’ve got to get back to that.”

As a true freshman, Harris played fairly well at the linebacker position despite only learning he would be the starter a few days before the Crimson Tide's season opener against Duke. On the season, Harris totaled 63 tackles with 7.5 of them being for a loss. He also had two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble.

2019 was Harris' first season at linebacker. In high school, Harris played at both cornerback and wide receiver. While some skills from corner overlap with linebacker, the duties and the style of play differ drastically.

For Harris, there was definitely a learning curve when taking on the position after joining Alabama.

"Transitioning from the fact that I played corner and wide receiver in high school, in the beginning, the first couple of weeks it was a little tough: working on pad level, reading the whole defense, having to communicate a little more," Harris said. "Coach Golding is one of the best coaches in the country and he’s coaching me up every day. I had Josh McMillon, Dylan Moses there to help me out every day. I had no choice but to get better every day, especially with the offense that we have. You have Najee Harris, Trey Sanders, [Brian Robinson], you have no choice but to get better every day. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but I’m liking it a lot."

As for this past offseason, Harris says that learning the playbook was what he needed to work on the most heading into the Crimson Tide's first game on Sept. 26 at Missouri.

"I would say learning the plays," Harris said. "Coming in May 27 in the summer, I only really had two months to really prepare before the season. Trying to understand the playbook a lot more, trying to understand not only my job but everybody else’s job, making sure everybody’s lined up. The communication, I feel like communication was one of the biggest things I needed to work on. I’ve worked on that a lot, I feel more comfortable with the playbook. Now I can just go out there and play football, not think and move slow. I can just play football like I’ve always been doing."

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