Alabama Defense Should Be Mad It Was Shut out in Award Season

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Heisman Trophy. The Maxwell Award. The Walter Camp Award. The Doak Walker Award. The Rimington Trophy. The Joe Moore Award.

All are major college football honors won by the University of Alabama this season, including some for the first time. All were won by the Crimson Tide offense.

Meanwhile, how many trophies did the defense get?

None.

That’s right: zilch, zero, nada.

Alabama arguably had the best defense in the nation. It was first against the run, near the top in each of the other major defensive statistics and notched the most sacks.

This upcoming spring, it could have four players with first-round potential in the NFL draft—Jonathan Allen, Reggie Ragland, Jarran Reed and A’Shawn Robinson.

Yet the Crimson Tide defense didn’t win a single piece of hardware on the awards circuit.

It didn’t even have anyone in the running for some honors like the Vince Lombardi/Rotary Award (best lineman), the Ted Hendricks Award (top defensive end) or the Lott Impact Trophy (defensive best in character and performance).

Name	National Award	Winner
Reggie Ragland	Bednarik Award finalist	Tyler Matakevich, Temple
	Bronko Nagurski finalist	Tyler Matakevich, Temple
	Butkus Award finalist	Jaylon Smith, Notre Dame
A’Shawn Robinson	Outland Trophy finalist	Joshua Garnett, Stanford
Eddie Jackson	Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist	Desmond King, Iowa
Kirby Smart	Broyles Award finalist	Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma

“I was definitely surprised,” Alabama senior safety Geno Matias-Smith said about the shutout. “A'Shawn, Reggie, those guys had great years and they definitely should have won awards for it.”

This isn’t to suggest that the various awards winners weren’t deserving because all were impressive in their own right. But Alabama should have won something, anything—especially Ragland.

He topped the Crimson Tide with 90 tackles, including 6.5 for a loss, to go with six pass breakups, six quarterback hurries and two forced fumbles. He did so while making all the calls and adjustments, and regularly moving around—including as a pass-rusher.

Category	NCAA Rank
Rushing Defense	1
Total Defense	2
Scoring Defense	3
Pass Effic. Defense	4
3rd-down Defense	6
Sacks	1
Turnovers	T22

Ragland led the efforts to shut down Georgia’s Nick Chubb until Alabama had the game in hand and helped to hold then-Heisman front-runner Leonard Fournette of LSU to 31 yards on 19 carries.

He was the one to say at SEC media days that opponents “aren’t scared to play us anymore” while calling on the defense to regain its swagger.

Ragland was also among those to call the team meeting after the Ole Miss loss, which the players have called the turning point of the season.

“Once we do our job, we’re a hard team to be beat,” Ragland said at the time—words that proved to be prophetic.

No. 2 Alabama hasn’t lost since.

He was the only defensive player named a team captain. Opposing coaches voted him the Southeastern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. When it came time for postseason accolades, his name was at the forefront.

Actually, Ragland did do something that none of his recent predecessors pulled off, including Dont’a Hightower and Courtney Upshaw, or Butkus Award (best linebacker) winners Rolando McClain and C.J. Mosley.

He’s the first Alabama linebacker during the Nick Saban era (since 2007) to be a unanimous All-American selection.

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

For those who don’t follow how that status is determined, the NCAA uses five services: The Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association, Football Writers Association of America, Sporting News and Walter Camp Foundation.

This year, Ragland and running back Derrick Henry finished as unanimous honorees, while Robinson and center Ryan Kelly were consensus choices. All were appropriate, although Alabama fans are wondering why Reed and Allen didn’t receive more consideration.

But to put it into perspective, consider that Ragland was only the third linebacker in Alabama history to earn unanimous distinction, joining Cornelius Bennett and Derrick Thomas.

Bennett won the 1986 Rotary/Lombardi Award over the likes of Brian Bosworth (Oklahoma), Jerome Brown (Miami), and Chris Spielman (Ohio State), while Thomas was awarded the Butkus Award in 1988 and might be in the discussion for best linebacker in college football history.

Neither of them had a chance to play for a national championship, which—along with being surrounded by a lot of talent—is probably what cost Ragland.

While the 51 solo tackles is impressive by any standard, he didn’t have gaudy numbers and Alabama’s smothering defense had more contributions from more players than any other team in the nation.

Now, heading into the playoffs, they all have chips on their shoulders, and not just because of Ragland. The linemen being overlooked, senior cornerback Cyrus Jones not landing All-SEC honors despite Alabama finishing fifth in pass efficiency defense, all the trophies the offense landed...

Think that all might give Alabama's defense some extra motivation when it faces Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31?

"Definitely it will," Matias-Smith said.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.