Pete Golding Not Shying Away From Responsibility of Leading Crimson Tide Defense Back to Championship Standard

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding took a lot of heat last season after the unit, as a whole, did not live up to the standard fans are used to since coach Nick Saban has arrived in Tuscaloosa.

Partially, that was due to numerous injuries and lack of experience on that side of the ball, but either way, Golding is determined to get the Crimson Tide back to its normal self, a dominating defense that gets after the quarterback, feeds on negative plays, and creates turnovers at key moments.

After the third practice of fall camp, in one of the few moments he publicly speaks to the media throughout the season, on Thursday night, he did not shy away from the criticism or the responsibility that is laid out in front of him.

"That’s why I took this job," Golding said. "I took this job because I wanted to coach the best defense in the country and that’s the expectation with this place and I don’t want anything differently. So the bottom line is it’s our job to put the best product on the field and they’ve got to perform and they’ve got to do well. From an offseason standpoint, obviously we dove in from a defensive standpoint, whether it was missed tackles or mental errors or whatever it was: Why and how do we fix it? It’s one thing to understand ok what was it, but how do you fix it?

"I think that was the biggest thing this offseason in all the studies that we did is make sure we’re going back, ‘Alright, did we have that drill set up? All these missed tackles, a lot of them are in similar situations. Well, did we drill it? Did we put them in the situation? How can we do a better job of coaching and preparing the kids to where we get the product that we want on Saturday?' Bottom line, it’s on me. It’s not on anybody else. I’m the defensive coordinator. I’m responsible for the defense. So I’ve got to do a better job of getting them prepared, getting those guys knowing what to do and playing fast."

In the statistical categories last season, Alabama ranked fifth in the SEC in total defense (324.4 ypg), seventh in rushing defense (137.5 ypg), third in passing defense (187.2 ypg), and third in scoring defense (18.6 ppg).

The Crimson Tide will have to replace seven starters on defense, three from the front seven and four in the secondary, and with players forced to go home in the spring due to COVID-19, Golding believes that the time used to install the concepts, mentally, has gone a long way for this group this upcoming season.

"Not having a spring ball obviously is a big concern to some people and they ask, ‘Does anything change?’ And I think with the Zoom meetings we had, where we’re at from a mental standpoint with our players, I think we’re way ahead from a mental standpoint than we’ve ever been," Golding said. "And then it’s been nice, in the summer it was different having those 10 days to be able to get with those guys like a mini camp before camp started. Our standard’s aren’t going to change. Our expectations aren’t going to change just because we didn’t have spring ball. We obviously have a chip on our shoulder. We know the tradition of defense here. We know the expectation here. And we’re ready to live up to it. That’s going to be a challenge.

"We’ve lost some players, some good players from last year. Obviously had some young guys last year that played a lot and had to step up and they’ll have some experience. And then, I think this recruiting class that we brought in up to this point in camp has been everything we thought they would be. But I’ve just been really impressed, this offseason and this summer, with the leadership of Coach Saban. I can’t imagine being in any other organization and going through something like this, but working for one of the best leaders in the world and coming every day and having a plan and not looking ahead and not worrying about whether we’re playing ball or not but taking it one day at a time, trying to develop our players that we’ve got on our roster, talk to our recruits and continue to recruit, it was really impressive to watch, being around Coach Saban during this pandemic and I commend him for that.

"Also, I think the offseason allowed us, by not having spring ball and not having recruiting, it really allowed us from a defensive standpoint to really dive in and self-scout and see what worked and why it worked and see what didn’t work and what we needed to change and how we needed to get better. Obviously we’re constantly trying to improve defensively and as a team and I thought the defensive staff did an unbelievable job with that this offseason, this summer. What a great group of guys — great football coaches. fun to be around, but they bring a lot to this university. I really appreciate everything that they do.

"Other than that, third day, I think we’ve got some young guys playing well, playing fast. I really think the mental part of it we’re ahead of where we’ve been and I think a big part of that has just been the installation process of how different it was. I think obviously the day one heat, we had to get adjusted to some of that because they hadn’t been used to that, but I think we’ve got some older players showing a lot of leadership. I think Dylan Moses, having him back out there and hearing him and seeing him flying around, he’s done an exceptional job with these young kids. LaBryan Ray up front, it’s nice to have him back. Christian Barmore’s playing really well. And I think Patrick Surtain, he’s in a really good spot. I think these freshman DB's who are going to have to play for us look up to him. He’s bringing them under his wing. So I’m really excited about where we’re at from an attitude, energy standpoint right now. We understand we’ve got to get better and we have to get better and we will and I think they’re excited about the challenge."

In the Crimson Tide's two losses in 2019, against LSU and Auburn, lack of communication, mental errors and missed tackles played a substantial role in the outcome. Golding noted that, against the new-age offenses, he has been working on finding schemes to disguise coverages and put a stop to the no-huddle attack.

"Any tempo team, obviously you work it through the week and you have a code system to where the call and everything is one word, one signal to be able to get lined up and play fast. The difference, the way the game is now, the LSUs and other people, they’ll go up tempo but then they’re gonna go look. They’re gonna go fast to the ball, they’re gonna look, and if you’re in the same call, they’re gonna eat you alive. So then you got to play that game. They go tempo, they look, we need to have the ability to change calls, change coverages, change pressures and things like that.

"But absolutely, I think a tempo plan, right, and making it simple and being multiple within the same sense, and then we have to have the ability to where they change, you have to have the ability to change. That takes practice and that takes work. Sometimes when you ask young guys to do that that are coming from high school, that’s tough. I think sometimes it’s tough as a coach to where you can’t go versus really good players and be just vanilla, to where, ‘Hey, we’re doing this every time,’ and we’re showing them our hand in poker, and expect to win the down. And also I don’t think you need to bluff every down. So there’s a happy medium there. I think our offseason was a big part of that. How can we get our cleats in the turf, line up, see the formation, see the backside, make the calls and play fast. Aight? And still be able to be multiple by doing that."

As he continues on into his second year as the defensive coordinator, Golding has two new brains he can pick on the defensive staff, pulling from the wealth of experiences from assistant Freddie Roach and analyst Charlie Strong.

"With Freddie, what an unbelievable player he was here, but what an unbelievable person," Golding said. "I think the energy he brings to that room, being a little younger, I think the kids relate to him more. But it’s not a buddy system. He’s on their ass, he’s gonna make sure they do things right. He does a great job of understanding the defense. I think a big part of a coach is how do I relate it to the players. Right? It’s not what I know, it’s what they know. I think he does a really good job of, ok, here’s the front, here’s the game, here’s the blitz, and breaking it down into their language and into their terms, and getting on the same page. And I’ve been really excited to have him. Obviously I think any time you can come back to your alma mater and coach, that’s something special.

"I love Charlie. It’s so nice to have him here. I mean, holy cow, the experience he’s had, whether it’s been a head coach or a defensive coordinator. Obviously we still have Coach [Mike] Stoops as well. I love picking those guys’ brains. And have them evaluate me, whether it’s from a scripted standpoint, a meeting standpoint. ‘Coach, how would you have said this differently? How would you have done it differently?’ That’s what I’m so excited about. I’m in an unbelievable atmosphere. I work for the best head coach in college football. I got a lot of guys around me that have unbelievable experience and they’re really good dudes. They’re all in it for the right reasons and they’re here to help us, and help us improve, and get this defense back to where it should be, and I promise you I’ve got open ears."

With a mix of experienced veterans and loaded recruiting class, Golding will look to take the lessons learned a season ago, and steer this group in the right direction, in hopes of bringing national title No. 18 to Tuscaloosa in 2020.

"One of the things is, I think, as a defensive guy, as a coach, as a competitor, right, you always want to put your guys in the best position, right?," Golding said. "You always want to have the best call, right, defend it the best, let’s have the best game, let’s have the coverage, alright. And I think by doing that at times, yeah, it looks really good on the board and it should work and it does. However, who’s doing it? Who’s got the pen? And I think that’s the biggest thing for me last year. Obviously, it’s easy to look back and say that now, and I have no regrets. I coached my ass off, and I prepared them as best as I could and all that. But looking back at it, it’s understanding, hey, who’s our personnel? What have we got? How can simplify this thing to let these kids play fast, run? And the biggest thing, how can we eliminate explosive plays, mental errors and still be disruptive? I mean, this game’s still about negative yards, plays, takeaways, right? And then how can we get off the field on third down? And I think from a discipline standout -- and that was the thing that hurt me the most.

"Looking back, to me, it’s the missed tackle, the mental errors, right, and then the lack of discipline, right, third-down penalties and things like that. As a coach, I mean, that makes you sick, and you feel like that’s something you should be able to control. So, I’ve got to do a better job in meetings and at practice and everything else. That is not acceptable. You’re either coaching it or allowing it to happen. So, we’re doing a better job of monitoring those things, putting them on tape, showing them every day, ‘Look, this is it. This is who we are. This is who we’re not, alright.’ And then obviously getting those guys to do it the right way, and that’s what I told them at the start of this camp. I was like, ‘Why did you come here? Why did I come here? To work with the best guy to ever do it and to go to a standard to be the No. 1 defense in the country.’ I used to break these guys down every year wherever I was at, right, to learn and watch tape.

"But guess what, the five national championships, go back and average the defense. 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.”