McClain leads the way for Tide defense

TUSCALOOSA — One of the best college football players in America knows what he would do if he had a Heisman Trophy ballot this year.

Alabama running back Mark Ingram, a leading candidate for the Heisman, would vote for Rolando McClain.

“The impact he has on our team,” Ingram explained. “Not just how he plays, but from a leadership standpoint. As a player, he goes out there every day and he makes plays. He comes to play every day.

“He knows everything that’s going on with the defense. He knows what the d-line is doing. He knows what the corners are doing. He makes all the calls and makes sure everybody is set where they are supposed to be before the play even starts.”

McClain, Alabama’s junior middle linebacker, leads the team with 66 tackles. The 6-foot-4, 258-pound star from Decatur has 9 percent body fat and his 40 time is 4.6.

But if he is the most physically gifted player on the Crimson Tide, Javier Arenas says he’s also the fiercest — and the smartest.

“He has all the pieces a great linebacker should possess,” Arenas said. “He is smart. He is fast. He will hit you. It’s like Coach Saban being out there on defense. Just picture Coach Saban being huge and being able to play football. That’s what it’s like out there.”
The cornerback tried to describe the linebacker’s impact.

“I don’t know if you watch those NFL games when guys are miked up and you hear all the different sound effects from guys and how they react when they get hit ... that’s the only way I can explain it,” Arenas said.

“You black out for a second. You’re trying to figure out which truck hit you. You see him walking away and you’re like, ‘It was him.’”

This week, Dan Mullen’s Mississippi State Bulldogs will take on the 9-0 Crimson Tide. Moving the football against McClain and the SEC’s top-rated rushing defense is Job 1 for the Bulldogs.

“He’s a smart football player who makes a lot of plays,” Mullen said about McClain. “On top of that, he’s got tremendous size and speed. Brandon Spikes at Florida is similar, and they’re probably the two best linebackers in the country. He (McClain) is a tough guy and has a knack for knowing where the play is going.”

That knack is on display each week, but it was particularly evident against LSU last Saturday. The Tigers ran a no-huddle offense designed to keep Alabama from substituting for down-and-distance situations.

McClain looked like the defensive Peyton Manning, madly screaming calls to the front seven and coverage calls to the secondary through hand gestures.

“You just have to make checks whenever they make checks like that. Make the same calls whenever they’re in a certain formation. That’s something you’ve got to do,” McClain said.

He guessed that, despite the confusion, Alabama was in the right defense “98, 99 percent” of the time.

“There’s a lot that goes on, especially with this defense being so complicated,” he said. “I think that’s why nobody really besides us runs a 3-4 in college football. You don’t see it a lot.

“The mental aspect can be overwhelming but if you can handle it you’ll have success. I think that’s what is helping our defense right now.”
He is especially mindful of what is going on behind him. Arenas, a cornerback, and free safety Justin Woodall are both making calls.

“Javier and Justin do a good job. ... Sometimes, there is some confusion back there,” he said. “Sometimes, Javy may say we’re in one coverage and Woodall will say we’re in another. We’re supposed to look at the safety but whenever there’s confusion they look at me. ... The main thing is, as long as we’re all in the same coverage, it’s fine.”

This is in addition to providing on-the-job training to freshman Nico Johnson, who is the other inside linebacker in the Tide’s base 3-4 defense.

“I think he’s played well,” McClain said when asked about Johnson, the freshman from Andalusia. “I can’t really explain it. He’s up here, sometimes earlier than me, watching film. I think he’s done a great job adapting to the defense and being in the right spot. He’s made some plays. He’s a good player. It’s something I expected from him.”

As Johnson’s comfort level has increased, so has his contribution on the field.

“We don’t ask him to do anything extra, just do his job and play our play,” McClain said. “He gets himself in position and he goes from there. He knows his assignment and that’s the big thing, just knowing what to do. He knows what to do and he does it well.”