Alabama Football Film Room: Christian Barmore has flashed in limited role

Christian Barmore looks to have played himself into more playing time. He had flashed in mop-up duty, but he was still buried down on the depth chart. Here’s what Saban had to say after the Southern Miss game, in which Barmore recorded 3 tackles, including 1 tackle for loss.

“Well, you know, we certainly are pleased with the progress he’s made,” Saban said Monday. “He’s got ability, he’s got initial quickness. The challenge for us has been to get him to do the things that he needs to do relative to the rest of the players on defense.”

With the true freshmen defensive linemen Justin Eboigbe and Byron Young not standing out, Barmore got a bigger chance against Texas A&M. And he certainly made the most of it. We’ll take a look at three of his games here.

1st and 10: Barmore (#58) is at defensive tackle. He engages with the right guard and yanks him forward a bit before displaying a nice swim move to get by. Barmore then makes the stop with the other defensive tackle.

1st and 10: Barmore is on the outside shoulder of the right guard and goes against him again. The center briefly tries to help out before going to the second level, but that’s not enough to help the guard. Barmore slices through fairly easily, blowing up the play, and helping make the tackle again.

2nd and 9: This was a pretty simple play for Barmore. The center gets a hand on him, but he heads straight to the second level. The right guard pulls to the right, seemingly expecting someone else to pick up Barmore; but no one does. The guard tries to turn back; but Barmore just swats his attempts a way and crashes into the running back, who barely had time to move after getting the snap.

3rd and 14: It’s the next play. Barmore is one-on-one against the offensive lineman and wins handily. He gets a hand in the guard’s chest and yanks him forward and to the side. Inside linebacker Jaylen Moody fills one gap, so the running back moves to the right, right towards Barmore. Barmore wraps him up about a yard and a half past the line of scrimmage. The back ends up on the ground about three yards behind the line.

3rd and 17: Barmore is one of three down linemen, heads-up over the center. He swats away the center’s hands and attacks his right shoulder. We see the swim move again, and Barmore has a clear shot at Kellen Mond for an easy sack, the first of his career. Just look how he excited he was for it.