LB Christian Harris Leading An Experienced Alabama Defense

Alabama football returns nine starters to its defense in 2021, including the most-experienced inside linebacker on the roster in junior Christian Harris.

Harris has played in all 26 games since arriving to the Capstone and, as a sophomore, recorded 79 total tackles, which was second on the team behind Dylan Moses' 80, seven tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries and one interception.

Even as a freshman, he started 12 of 13 games and earned Freshman All-American honors

The Baton Rouge, La. product is set to headline the defensive unit again as Harris attempts to win the Mike linebacker spot, the quarterback of the defense, following the departure of Moses to the NFL.

“Since I got here, Day 1 of my freshman year, it’s been endless completion with me and Shane [Lee] and other linebackers in the linebacker room so none of that’s ever changed," Harris told the media on Monday afternoon. "These guys come in every day and put in the same amount of work as I do so I’m really excited to see what this year has in store for us.”

Two of the 15 spring practices are in the book and Harris can already sense something different in this year's group compared to last year. In 2020, Alabama topped the SEC in points allowed at 19.6, which also ranked 13th in the country, but still received heavy criticism following outings against Ole Miss and Florida where the Crimson Tide gave up 45-points-or-more each game.

“Last year was last year," Harris said. "I think I did a pretty good job with trying to communicate the calls and stuff but we’re on to a new year and I’m trying to be more of a leader and have that leadership role on the team and be more vocal to the guys and get the call out across the board.

“I could definitely tell a big difference just in the practice that we had on Friday. The energy, the confidence level that everybody has out there, the communication, everything’s been going pretty well right now, so we’ve just gotta make sure we keep going one day at a time and keep getting better.”

Alabama coach Nick Saban stressed in his opening spring press conference the importance of the defensive getting off the field in 2021 and Harris echoed those sentiments.

Opponents had a 41.5 success rate on the Crimson Tide on those downs, which was good for 77th in the nation.

Harris did add that the key to flourishing on third downs actually begin with not allowing chunk plays on first and second down.

“I definitely think we need to improve on our third down," Harris said. "I think we actually need to improve more on second down just putting ourselves in better positions for third down. A lot of times it would be third-and-two, third-and-three so it’s a lot harder to convert on those. It’s an easy run play to get you a first down so we have to make it more difficult for teams on third down to improve our success.”

Along with that this spring, Harris is emphasizing his leadership abilities to follow in the footsteps of Moses and other great Crimson Tide linebackers that have come before him.

"With the experience, it’s not necessarily weird," Harris said. "In practice, we all get the same amount of reps, we all put the work just as much as each other. So it’s not like anybody is over one another in the linebacker room but as far as taking the leadership role, I really am trying to focus on that this year.

"I think I had a little bit of a role last year but I really had a lot of guys like Dylan ahead of me and a lot of guys my freshman year that showed me a great example of what a leader should look like on this team so I’m just trying to pick up where they left off.”