Gary Danielson on why Alabama may be forced to play a limited Minkah Fitzpatrick
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While the current injury situation for Alabama’s defense may be overstated, as the reality is the Tide have not lost the majority of their opening day starters, it’s not so much how many players Nick Saban’s defense is down, it’s who they have lost.
With Shaun Dion Hamilton lost for the season and Minkah Fitzpatrick limited after suffering an injury against LSU, those two players are arguably the two most important members of the Alabama defense this season. It appears Fitzpatrick will play against Mississippi State, but according to CBS Sports’ Gary Danielson, Alabama may not have any other choice but to play the junior defensive back.
During his appearance on the latest 247Sports College Football Podcast, Danielson explained how vital those two defenders are to Alabama’s success on defense.
“The injury to Minkah Fitzpatrick and Shaun Dion Hamilton, (those) are their two quarterbacks on defense,” Danielson said. “Those are the guys that in Nick’s (Saban) and Jeremy Pruitt’s sophisticated attack is moving all the other great athletes around into the great spots to make the plays. Everybody else on that defense, the 10 other guys relax mentality because Minkah and Shaun do such a tremendous job of anticipating the plays, remembering the gameplan, understanding the shifts and the motions and the adjustments that have to be made — and that’s why Minkah had to go back into that football game (vs. LSU).”
After studying the film, Danielson explained how even when Fitzpatrick wasn’t at 100 percent after sustaining his injury, he was still able to contribute mentally to Alabama’s defensive effort against LSU. The Alabama coaching staff wisely put him in a role that would not expose him but would allow him to stay on the field and help the other defenders.
“They only used him in Dime situations and what he actually did was come in and play outside linebacker so he didn’t really have to run a lot, but he was still quarterbacking the defense — he was just backing up into soft zones at that point, but he still allowed them to make the proper adjustments on 3rd down.”
It is Danielson’s belief that had Dion Hamilton been on the field against the Tigers, LSU running back Darrel Williams would likely not have busted out for his 54-yard run from the Wildcat package. The play did not result in a touchdown but did set up LSU for its only touchdown of the game.
“When they lost Shaun, that’s when that Wildcat went out the backend on them,” Danielson continued. ‘They were misaligned. They were covering the wrong gaps, and one opened up, not that it wasn’t well blocked but that’s unusual for Alabama to give up that kind of a gap when there is no passing threat on that situation. It was a run all the way.”
It will be interesting to see if Mississippi State saw the same things on tape this week and attack Fitzpatrick on the backend to test his ability while dealing with an injury. MSU QB Nick Fitzgerald basically is a Wildcat QB at times, which may give the Bulldogs more confidence going up against the Tide’s defense in Starkville.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
