No one in the country has been as consistently good at discouraging teams from running the ball than Alabama over the last decade.

The Tide’s remarkable rush defense under coach Nick Saban was something I explored not too long ago.

Last season’s Alabama defense stood out even among all its stout units against the ground over the last eight years dating back to Saban’s second year in Tuscaloosa.

Here is how the Tide performed in some key categories in 2015:

Rushing yards allowed per game: 75.7 (1st in the SEC)
Most rushing yards allowed in a 2015 game: 193, Georgia
Rushing TDs allowed: 7 (1st)
100-yard rushers allowed: 1

All those numbers are pretty staggering. Alabama’s 75.7 rushing yards per game allowed also led the FBS, a comfortable five yards better than Boston College (83.2). That marked the fifth time in nine seasons under Saban that the Tide have finished first or second in the FBS in rushing yards allowed per game.

While Alabama dominated other teams on the ground last season behind Derrick Henry, who scored a touchdown in every single game, opponents only found the end zone seven times via the ground (only twice over the last six games).

The two categories above referring to most rushing yards allowed in a game and the one 100-yard rusher allowed both came in that Oct. 3 beatdown of Georgia, 38-10, in Athens. Nick Chubb finished with 146 yards, but he was mostly held in check outside of an 83-yard TD at the end of the third quarter.

Front seven

While at Georgia, Jeremy Pruitt employed a 3-4 scheme. As he gets set for his first year guiding Alabama’s defense, it remains to be seen if he’ll weave in the 3-4 more often than Alabama had in the last several seasons under Kirby Smart, who’s said that his units were in the 4-3 “60 to 70 percent of the time” and Saban estimated they were in the 3-4 a little less than 15 percent of the time.

The Tide had the best, and deepest, front seven in recent memory in 2015. While the defensive line did lose A’Shawn Robinson and Jarran Reed to the NFL Draft, it’s still poised to be a strength of the team while a few linebackers have to prove themselves, so it doesn’t make sense to work in more 3-4 wrinkles. Not this season, anyways.

In fact, if Pruitt has the goal of putting his best talent on the field, he’ll do what he can to make sure his “Star” — the fifth defensive back used in nickel and dime packages — will see the field often. Last season, that was Minkah Fitzpatrick, who finished with 45 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 11 pass breakups, 2 INTs (2 returned for TDs) and 2 sacks as a freshman.

As for the defensive front, it doesn’t look to be as deep as the 2015 group’s bottomless pit of talent. However, Jonathan Allen returns after a First-Team All-SEC performance, racking up 12 sacks that came half a sack shy of Texas A&M’s Myles Garrett for the conference lead.

Joining him as starters will be Dalvin Tomlinson, Da’Ron Payne and Da’Shawn Hand, while bigger roles could be filled by Josh Frazier, O.J. Smith and Dakota Ball (who’s worked with the D-line after serving mostly as a blocking tight end last season). Meanwhile, 2016 signees Raekwon Davis and Quinnen Williams — a pair of four-star prospects — could also make an early impact.

While some defenses stiffen against the run in the red zone, Alabama turned into a brick wall last season, averaging 0.73 yards per rush in the red zone. That was by far the best mark in the league as no other team allowed fewer than two yards per carry.

When it came to 3rd-and-short, Alabama allowed just 1.96 yards per rush. Only Ole Miss at 1.49 performed better.

Who is the secondary enforcer?

Safety Geno Matias-Smith is gone after leading all members of Alabama’s secondary with 72 tackles, third on the team. Eddie Jackson turned heads in pass coverage with his SEC-leading 6 INTs, but he can also help at the line of scrimmage. He had 45 tackles and 34 solo, which was fifth on the team.

He’s known to lay the lumber, evidenced by his big hit on Ole Miss’ Evan Engram back in 2013 that was ejected for before it was overturned on replay. Aside from that, Jackson will lead the group in terms of getting them lined up.

Greatest concern

We have to be nit-picky here because this is Alabama’s rushing defense we’re talking about. While Reuben Foster is expected to be a stud in the middle filling in for the departed Reggie Ragland, there’s a little — key word little — more uncertainty for whether linebackers around him like Ryan Anderson, Rashaan Evans and Shaun Dion Hamilton will play to their potential.

Depth on the defensive line could be an issue if some of the promising talent behind Allen, Tomlinson, Hand and Payne need extensive time to develop.

One stat that must improve in 2016

Alabama performed at a top-notch level in just about every respect against the run last season. One area the rushing defense could help is in the red zone, where the Tide allowed opponents to score 83.3 percent of the time, which was 11th in the SEC.

With that said, Alabama only allowed those opponents to convert those red zone trips into touchdowns 46.7 percent of the time, which was fourth in the SEC, so we’re being nit-picky again here.

Better/worse in 2016?

Last season’s group was simply rock solid against the run. Even against Clemson, a team that racked up at least 200 rushing yards in 11 of its 14 previous games, the Tide held the Tigers and dual-threat QB Deshaun Watson to 145 yards and 3.8 yards per rush.

For the season, Alabama allowed 1,136 yards on the ground. The next-best FBS team, Boston College, allowed 998 yards. However, the Eagles played three fewer games than the Tide.

It’s very hard to top that amazing performance, so for that reason the answer is worse, but that’s not to say Alabama still can’t lead the SEC or even the FBS in rushing once again. How crazy is that?