Alabama's Kirby Smart Proves He's a Defensive Coach of All Positions

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, FL) At the first spring practice it has already been well documented that many players were being tried at different positions. The same could be said of Alabama's defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart.

For the past few years, Alabama's defensive secondary has been second to none because they had both defensive coordinator Kirby Smart and head coach Nick Saban tutoring them.

Players like recently departed nickle back Marquis Johnson told me, "Having both those men watching your every move can intimidate some players, but I loved it. They would get on you in a heartbeat, but if you listened, you became better."

Now Smart steps up to help the linebackers, and recently promoted director of player development Jeremy Pruitt has moved to full time coach and takes Smart's place with the defensive backs.

Saban has complete confidence that Smart can coach any position, but that may not be the real reason for the switch.

While the Tide is absolutely loaded with talent at the linebacker spot and may not miss Rolando McClain so much from a physical standpoint, the biggest thing they lost in his departure was a natural leader and coach on the field.

"Rolando is not just an outstanding linebacker," Saban told me last season, "He's good enough to go into coaching right now. Seeing him set the linebackers and call the schemes, it's almost like he's reading my mind."

And that is what Smart is hoping to bring to the table with this move. Not just to develop the talent, but to develop the minds and mold the leadership.

It is widely thought the next "quarterback" linebacker will be Dont'a Hightower, who was not not only McClain's protegee for a year before being hurt last year, but one of his best friends.

Last year in an interview with me, McClain told me, "If I do leave early it would be because I know I'm leaving the team in good hands with Dont'a taking my place. He's a natural linebacker and I know he can more than fill my shoes."

That's high praise from the best linebacker in college football last year and those are big shoes to fill indeed.

So is Smart the missing ingredient? Can he develop raw talent into true leadership? If Nick Saban thinks so, then so do I.