BOL Round Table

You can absolutely judge them based on whether or not they have improved from week to week. Tennessee's defense right now is the worst it's been all year. They gave up over 700 yards to Troy last week.

There's no way to sugar coat this: Sunseri has done a terrible job, and he will never be a defensive coordinator again. The only people who think otherwise are our own fans who have some sort of emotional feeling about him because he coached here. As a position coach, he did a good job. As a DC, he has been absolutely horrible.

Only change I would make is that as a position coach, he does an INCREDIBLE job. Better than just a "good job."

You would have been hard pressed to find a single person on here who didn't want him to be the next defensive coordinator after Kirby last year. Guess he forgot how to coach when he left Bama...

Or we were just wrong. It's not like that would be anything new.

Major Applewhite begs to differ.

Exactly, he got fired because he didn't abide by the rules. My point is that if the guy is trying to do the job right (which Applewhite wasn't), it will work out for us. I expect Sal to do what he is supposed to and abide by Saban's rules. The system never changes.

If KS leaves, from a football coaching perspective, it really doesn't matter who replaces him. That's not taking anything away from Kirby. He's a great coach. But we should all stop pretending that Saban doesn't have his finger on every facet of Bama's defense. It's not like a new DC would bring anything new to the table or chance the current system. So you have to look at it from a recruiting perspective. Who would be the best recruiter in that position and who is most likely to flow with Saban's notorious drive? In that respect, Jeremy or Sal would be fine with Sal having more college experience and a heck of a learning experience from UT. No doubt Sal and CNS remain extremely close and it wouldn't surprise me to see him get a close look if Kirby leaves. I'm not convinced Kirby leaves after this season. I know for a fact that he doesn't have the burning desire to test the HC waters. But we all know that millions of dollars can change minds. Expect him to be in the top 3 of at least two SEC vacancies (UK and UT).