🏈 Reuben Foster respected as 'crazy guy' on Alabama defense, expected to lead in 2015

[BAMANEWSBOT]

"They just know he crazy and you know you're going to respect the crazy guy."


Few players arrived at Alabama with Reuben Foster-level hype. The nation's No. 1 middle linebacker was among the top 2013 recruits regardless of position.

Playing time has been scarce, however, in the first two seasons in Tuscaloosa. After starting the 2014 season opener when Trey DePriest was suspended, Foster returned to the second string. He'd competed with Reggie Ragland for the other middle linebacker job, but injuries last spring impeded that effort.

Now DePriest is a graduate and Foster is back competing for a starting job.

When asked who would be an emotional leader on this new Alabama team, 2014 captain and NFL prospect Jalston Fowler named Foster.

"To be truthful, I think guys just respect him," Fowler said at Wednesday's Alabama pro day. "They just know he crazy and you know you're going to respect the crazy guy. You don't want to piss the crazy guy off."

Foster made his biggest impact as big hitting special teams player last fall. His crushing hit on LSU's Leonard Fournette on the final play of regulation set the Alabama sideline off before winning the game in overtime.

"Whooo! I've seen Reuben do it so much, it's like second nature to him," Ragland said in November. "It's like Whooo. I think Reuben is a harder hitter than I am. Every time you see him hit, he just makes everything explode and fall. Yeah, that hit, baby. Whooo!"



He had two more big shots defending kickoffs against Texas A&M and another midway through the second quarter of the Sugar Bowl.

Tackling technique had been a criticism Nick Saban had of Foster's game. Too often he buried his head, creating dangerous situations where neck injuries came into play.

DePriest, who's aiming for a spot in the NFL draft, saw promising signs of growth from Foster.

"He got the playbook down towards the end of the year," DePriest said. "So I think you'll see big from Reuben this year."

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[BamaFan334]

I watch that hit over and over all the time. Just a big time collision between two big dudes.

 

[riz]

If he can ever stay healthy. Or unparalyzed..

 

[TerryP]

If he can ever stay healthy. Or unparalyzed..

I expect to see technique improvement with Reuben this year. I say that because of this...

When Steele left to go to LSU I spoke with a father of one of our players for a few minutes and ask him to ask his son what his opinion was on Steele as a position coach. Now, I've talked with a few who have varying opinions on Steele, but this players statement I found interesting.

He described Steele as a great tape guy; good on teaching positions and responsibilities. But, when it came to on the field instructions he described Steele as "clumsy."

When I started thinking about that in relation to our guys from last year that made a lot of sense to me. Take Ragland as an example. He's not the most gifted player when it comes to pure football ability. But, he was in the right place at the right time more often than not. That, to me, demonstrated that Reggie was pretty good during his film observations and took that portion of his coaching well.

Technique wise, we've seen players coached by Kirby as pretty fundamentally sound when it comes to tackling. Yes, we've had our missed tackles but our guys have always wrapped up and drove through more often than not.

In my opinion that gives sufficient reason to believe we'll see improvement in Foster this season.