Alabama’s coaching staff went through a bit of turnover on the defensive side this offseason, with two linebackers coaches departing and two new members joining the staff. About halfway through spring, outside linebackers Tosh Lupoi has Nick Saban talking like his rival at LSU, Les Miles, while Saban sticks to his own shtick while praising secondary coach Mel Tucker.

“He brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm,” Saban said of Lupoi to the Anniston (Ala.) Star.

That’s about as effusive as Saban gets. He was a little more subdued when talking about Tucker, whom Saban worked with back in his Michigan State days, but just as complimentary.

“He knows the system. He knows a lot of the adjustments. I think he’s done a really, really good job with the players, and I think the players have responded very well to him,” Saban said of the former NFL defensive coordinator.

While the two coaches have two different approaches, Saban has said both coaches are doing a good job of reaching and relating to the players, something the players have confirmed, especially when it comes to Lupoi.

“We love him as a coach. He’s a definitely a players coach. Players love playing for him. He loves coaching us,” defensive end Jonathan Allen told Rivals.com about Lupoi.

The new outside linebackers coach is actually in his second year on Alabama’s staff. He spent 2014 as an analyst, coming off a stint at Washington under current Southern California coach Steve Sarkisian. Lupoi was expected to follow Sark to USC, but in the midst of an NCAA investigation (in which Lupoi was cleared of any wrongdoing), he ended up at Alabama.

Last week, Saban hosted Alabama’s annual coaching clinic, with hundreds of coaches on hand to watch practice. According to the practice report from the Anniston Star, Lupoi cranked up his intensity with so many eyes on him for that workout. Apparently unhappy with how a drill was going, Lupoi had his charges start it over.

Despite that intensity and reputation for getting loud, Lupoi seems to have won over Alabama’s defensive players.

“He’s a fired-up guy and that’s what we enjoy,” Allen told the Anniston Star.

Tucker is a bit more understated than the 33-year-old Lupoi, but his impact will be just as vital. With a short-handed secondary — senior cornerback Cyrus Jones is out for the spring with a hip injury and senior safety Geno Smith’s status is unclear after his DUI arrest last week — Tucker is working on several inexperienced players, like Marlon Humphrey, Tony Brown and Hootie Jones, to get them up to speed.

Saban brought Tucker in as his secondary coach, the first on staff in two years, after last year’s Alabama secondary was burned on deep balls too often for Saban’s liking. It’s something the coach has talked about a good bit this offseason.

“(Deep completions are) something we’ve got to improve on. You’ve got to believe, trust in the technique that you’re being taught and go out there and try and execute and do it and use all the things that you’re being taught to help you have a chance to be successful and I don’t think we did that last year enough in the secondary,” Saban said in the Rivals.com article.

While they’re going about it in different ways — one loudly, one quietly — the reports out of Tuscaloosa indicate that both Lupoi and Tucker are already making an impact with the Crimson Tide’s defense.