The standard in Tuscaloosa is for Alabama to have the nation’s best defense every season. The Crimson Tide annually have the players in place to accomplish that mission but have failed to live up to that lofty goal in recent seasons.

The truth is, since Jeremy Pruitt left the program, Alabama’s defense has taken a step back — especially in big games.

If you were to ask Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Pete Golding about his unit’s failures in recent seasons, he’s willing to shoulder the blame.

That’s good and well, but Nick Saban brought in Charlie Strong for a reason. If the defense doesn’t improve in a hurry, Alabama will already have a coach on staff ready to step up if and when he’s called upon.

During his recent media availability, Golding was asked about the criticism of his defenses this offseason.

The way Golding sees it, that’s always going to be the case unless the Crimson Tide have the best defense in the nation.

“That’s why I took this job. I took this job because I wanted to coach the best defense in the country. And that’s the expectation of this place and I don’t want anything differently,” Golding said. “So the bottom line is, it’s our job to put the best product on the field, and they got to perform and they got to do well.”

According to Golding, the extra time the coaching staff had to work with this offseason was dedicated to fixing the mistakes of last season’s unit.

“We dived in from a defensive standpoint, whether it was missed tackles or mental errors or whatever it was – why, right? And how do we fix it,” Golding added. “It’s one thing you say, what was it? How do you fix it? And so I think that was the biggest thing this offseason and all the studies that we did, is make sure we’re going back, that we have that drill setup.

“All right, 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? And so, bottom line that’s on me, ain’t on nobody else. I’m the defensive coordinator, I’m responsible for the defense. And so I got to do a better job of getting them prepared, getting those guys knowing what to do and playing fast.”

With Alabama jumping right into SEC play this season, there isn’t time to start slow. If they do, Thursday may have been Golding’s last opportunity to speak to the media as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.