Dylan Moses speaks for all of us.

Most neuroscience experts agree the brain hates change. Sudden and rapid shifts in the environment tend to throw off our mental equilibrium.

“I’m not the type of person that likes when things are up in the air, stuff like that,” said Moses, Alabama’s starting middle linebacker and undisputed defensive leader. “I like things to be certain.”

And we all know 2020 has been anything but.

On top of COVID-19 and every other source of chaos this year has brought, Moses spent the better part of it recovering from a torn ACL. The injury caused him to miss all of the 2019 season. It also added a layer to preparations for a 2020 campaign that, at one point, no one was sure was going to happen.

Instability. Uncertainty.

Now 2 weeks into said season, those hallmarks of Moses’ existence suddenly seem like a distant memory.

The 2018 Butkus Award finalist has picked up where he left 2 seasons ago. In the Crimson Tide’s pair of blowout wins to open the season, he leads the team with 3 tackles for loss and is tied for 3rd with 14 stops. He’s back to his pre-injury form, flying around and disrupting.

But that’s not the real story. Alabama’s defense is a different unit when Moses is on the field.

As the “Mike” linebacker in defensive coordinator Pete Golding’s scheme, Moses is in charge of relaying calls and signals to his 10 teammates. A relatively young group also looks up to the 6-3, 240-pound senior as the guy who sets the standard.

He’s not afraid to get in teammates’ faces during practice and let them know about it, either.

Without that moxie, the Tide’s defense suffered last season. It ranked 13th in scoring defense and 20th in yards allowed — enviable numbers for the majority of FBS programs, but lower than the gaudy expectations in Tuscaloosa.

“I want to strike fear in my opponents,” said Moses, Alabama’s only senior defensive starter. “I want it to be just like how it used to be. … That’s what Alabama’s identity is. I want to bring that back.”

Which is why even after Bama rolled Missouri 38-19 in Week 1, Moses said he “wasn’t impressed.”

That kind of attitude has earned the trust of Nick Saban, who said he could relate to Moses’ plight after the head coach underwent hip surgery last year.

“I think one of the things that I never realized about injured players until I had my hip replaced last year is sometimes you keep waiting for it to hurt even when it doesn’t hurt anymore,” Saban recently said during his weekly radio show. “I think sometimes that’s one of the biggest psychological hurdles that a player has to overcome when he’s coming back from an injury. And in the last 2 weeks, I’ve seen Dylan turn it loose and go for it like he played in the past.”

According to Moses, Saban helped him overcome the psychological deterrents of a year without football.

The hours spent retraining his surgically repaired knee tended to drag on at times. COVID impacted the schedule, too, but Moses arrived for an abbreviated fall camp fully recovered, at least physically.

“I was trying to rush my process, but my body kept telling me no,” he said then. “As time went on and I got stronger, there were times I would go out on the field without a brace and like that. I’d feel great.”

But when he noticed Moses hesitating or missing assignments early in preseason practices, Saban sat him down. He reminded Moses what he’s capable of.

“I challenged myself from that day forward to not think about it,” Moses said. “Once I started doing that, I started playing back 100 percent again.”

The results so far should help increase Moses’ NFL Draft stock. That objective was one major reason the projected top-10 pick announced in December he’d be coming back for another year.

But he also conveys an earnest, authentic desire to lead.

“I want to be able to put a punctuation on the back end of my career here at Alabama,” Moses said. “At the same time, I want to be able to affect my teammates. That’s the reason why I came back. I care about them, and I love them.”

His consistent message to a group with 6 true freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup: communication breeds confidence.

“You can have a lot of great players, a lot of great athletes, but if you don’t have a bond, or just a relationship with the guys you’re on the field with, then you’ll never be able to have a fully great team or fully do what you really want to do as far as winning championships,” Moses said. “I feel like in the offseason I really took the time to develop relationships, make the guys comfortable with each other and I feel like now, we’re ready to play.”

Those efforts go beyond the game and practice field. It was Moses who suggested Alabama hire Dr. Matt Rhea and David Ballou to run the program’s strength and conditioning program. The pair came from IMG Academy, where Moses had played his senior year of high school football.

With a jam-packed, all-SEC slate and the ever-looming threat of COVID-19, guys like Rhea and Ballou are earning their keep in entirely new ways this fall.

“I love it,” Moses said. “It’s definitely a challenge. It’s something that’s never been done before. My mindset: We take this season one game at a time and do what we need to do, 1-0 every week, we have the possibility to be the greatest team ever. That’s what I want. That’s my end goal.”

The “day-by-day” platitudes and of-course-that’s-the-ultimate-goal expressions of championship aspirations can tend to grow tired. But in a time when staying in the moment is important as ever, Moses’ persistence and humility amid his successes are both admirable and refreshing.

Not bad for a 22-year-old.

“This last year has actually been really hard for me, especially in the beginning when I first got hurt,” he said. “But as far as COVID and us practicing and getting ready to play, all the uncertainty that was going on before, I’m actually pretty at peace with it.

“Every time I go out on that field, it’s gratitude.”

Phil Ervin

Phil Ervin is a veteran college football writer with experience covering both the SEC and Big Ten.