Alabama seeks to find replacement for Rashad Johnson

TUSCALOOSA — Rolando McClain is surrounded by familiar faces on the Alabama defense.

The middle linebacker looks left, right and straight ahead and there are returning starters everywhere he looks.

“It’s a lot easier when you have nine starters,” McClain said after a practice last week.

But a key question facing the Crimson Tide is, who has got McClain’s back? In other words, who is going to replace free safety Rashad Johnson?

“You can’t replace Rashad Johnson,” the rising junior said, practically sneering at the absurdity of the question.

Johnson, a former walk-on, was asked to do a lot of things. He was second on the team with 89 tackles, which means he supported the run very quickly. He picked off a team-best five passes and broke up 11 more. But Alabama is going to have a free safety this fall.

Whether it will be Ali Sharrief or Mark Barron or someone else, they’ve got big shoes to fill.

“We have a lot of competition at that position,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “Mark Barron is competing, Ali is competing, we’re looking at Robby Green in there as the safety. We feel like all of those guys may develop into some role that they may have.

“It’s not just safety in ‘regular’ because Mark is a kind of an in-the-box player when it comes to nickel. If he ends up being the safety, we need another guy to play in the deep part of the field. It’s not just finding one guy; Rashad did all those things. He played the deep part of the field all the time and he was good in ‘sub,’ in passing downs with his range and ball skills and ball judgment in the deep part of the field. So we may find one or two or more players who contribute in various ways that he contributed. It may not be just one guy.”

Sharrief has more playing experience than the others competing for the post.

“Ali Sharrief has done a great job,” McClain said about the early days of spring practice. “He’s learning, but he’s doing fine with it.”

Defensive end Lorenzo Washington said Sharrief has looked good, but he bases that judgment as much on his ears as his eyes.

“I don’t hear Coach Saban yelling that much, so I figure they’re doing pretty good,” he laughed.

Sharrief said he knows what Johnson did for the Tide’s defense. Johnson made all the calls for the secondary and coordinated those coverages with McClain prior to every snap. Like Saban, he hinted that some of those roles might be shared this season. He has quickly learned that communication is the key.

“I think it’s going to take both the safeties (whoever is at free safety and strong safety Justin Woodall) to communicate and have some kind of agreement on how we do things,” said Sharrief, who played a lot last season in the team’s “money” position in nickel and dime packages. “Justin and I are both able to relay to each other everything that’s coming to us. I feel like that’s a big part of it, being able to talk to each other and talk to other people, too.”

He said he’s trying to emulate Johnson as much as possible.

“I’m trying to be an elite athlete like Rashad was and trying to be as smart as he was,” Sharrief said. “That’s a very, very difficult task, but I’m going to do everything I can to be just as good as him, if not better.”

The thing about Johnson that Sharrief is working hardest to emulate is his ability to anticipate what’s going to happen.

“He can basically call a play before it happens,” he said. “So I’m trying to build on my instincts and what I can do to be a better person and to work at being as good as he was. I think that’s all of us safeties. We’re all trying to work toward that because with him not being here, we all have some very, very big shoes to
fill.”

Beyond Johnson’s skill, his leadership will also be missed. McClain said he is making an effort to replace some of the vocal prodding Johnson provided.

“I know I need to be more of a leader with Rashad gone,” the linebacker said. “I was a little last year but I think my role has intensified some. I just want to lead by example as well as being more of a vocal leader. I do a good job trying to be vocal in practice. I mean, my play speaks for itself, I think. But I need to do a better job of keeping everybody intense and everybody up.”

Washington said leadership can’t be forced.

“You’re trying to do your stuff before you really start trying to lead everybody else,” he said. “We don’t have just one leader. If somebody gets down, if somebody makes a mistake, the whole team is, ‘Come on, come pick it up. Forget about that play and come back.’ ”

Saban said it will take time for this team to develop leaders to replace Johnson, Antoine Caldwell and three-year starting quarterback John Parker Wilson.

“That’s why you have spring practice, I think it’s why you have summer conditioning, it’s why you have the offseason program, I think it’s why you have fall camp,” Saban said. “Sometimes, having a little adversity can help develop and create that. So all of these things are learning experiences that’s going to help
this team develop the kind of character and personality they need.”