Carmelo O'neal

Uh, man, that's really tough.

I mean, s- 'cause who would be surprising? You know, someone like Carmelo O'Neal would probably be surprising.

If Jordan Edmonds end up playing at all, I think that would be pretty surprising and I would...

I mean, I, I know you're more so talking about, like, their performance and impact on the game.

So if he's on the field as an off-ball linebacker, he is probably gonna be lining up, like, next to Luke Metts Uh, but Reese is gonna see time at both.

He has that versatility.

At cornerback, I have Zabian Brown, and I personally have projected Carmelo O'Neal to start this weekend against Tennessee.

I don't have anything definitive on that.

Yo, think about this.

We've been talking about Carmelo O'Neal, maybe it is Jordan Edmonds.

How ironic would it be if for the second straight year, at kind of around this point in time, a freshman starts playing at corner for Alabama, just like Dejon Lee did last year over Damoni Jackson? I don't know.

And then as mentioned, uh, George McIntyre starting quarterback for Tennessee, so a lotta elements going into this game, um, head-to-head with the Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee.

There's no one that's like a huge liability on the back end.

I would say, okay, if you can either get better play out of DeJohn Lee or, you know, if you bring in Carmelo O'Neal, maybe eventually Jordan Edmonds, like, you know, that-- I feel that could solve a lot of your problems right now on the back end.

On the front seven, there's nobody glaring like that where this particular player needs to improve.

Kind of feels in some ways like last year where you never could pin it on one player, but it just felt like one person a lot of the time was just not the job done, and that was what was creating all these issues from a consistency standpoint in establishing the run last year, was kind of the same defense.

They'll either get a pass interference or they don't have the wherewithal to turn around and pick the ball off.

It definitely sounds like Carmelo O'Neal is gonna get more opportunities.

If you heard Kane Wommack in the press conference, I think he spoke on DeJon Lee, not just the, the critical error towards the end of the game.

We know that was very costly, but, uh, I think he mentioned, you know, listen, I mean, at the end of the day, it's results-oriented.

Let's stay locked in.

And my question for you of the day: Should Alabama start DeJohn Lee against Tennessee or give Carmelo O'Neal a better opportunity? Bigger opportunity.

Let me know inside the comment box.

Should DeJohn Lee start? Yes or no inside the comment box.

That's 83%.

Do we have somebody that can do a better job there? A- are these the best guys at the corner position? And I know Jordan Edmonds has been out.

A lot of people are talking about Carmelo O'Neal.

A lot of people.

And I think he ended up starting the last three games of the season.

And so I don't think this is necessarily a permanent thing for DeJohn Lee, and I don't even know how great I feel about Carmelo O'Neal being inserted into the starting lineup should that happen.

But I am buying it based off of what Kane Wommack said on Monday, and he-- When he was asked about Carmelo O'Neal, he pretty much said moving forward his role's gonna expand.

When he was asked about DeJohn Lee, he's like, "Hey, this is a production-based thing.

I can only take what you give me on the field." And, you know, so he said moving forward pretty much some things might look different.

You know, Damoni Jackson, uh, he got better.

You know, he took that experience, he put his head down, went to work, and he became that player, you know, a, a much better version of himself down the stretch, which helped Alabama.

I'm hoping that if that ends up happening with DeJohn Lee, he takes the same approach and, uh, you know, he ends up, uh, working his way back into the lineup and, and hopefully Carmelo O'Neal can really start to get his feet wet because I do think there's some ta- untapped potential there with Carmelo.