The last word on the coming season’s most pressing topics.

I’m sure exactly zero of Alabama’s nine departed defensive starters has given the subject this much thought, but if I was in any of their shoes, I can imagine feeling slightly more insulted by the unanimous decision for my old team at the top of almost every preseason poll this summer than proud. After all, Heisman hero Mark Ingram may have stolen the headlines, but it was the defense that staked its claim as the most dominating unit in the country, on either side of the ball, on a weekly basis.

Right out of the gate, the Tide held Virginia Tech to measly 155 yards total offense in the season opener, and later limited the SEC’s highest-scoring offenses, Florida and Arkansas, to a grand total of two touchdowns between them. When the foundering ‘Bama offense managed just two TDs itself over the course of a three-game October funk, the defense obliged by holding Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee to just one –