As I mentioned a week ago, Alabama’s pass defense in 2022 saw a major uptick in effectiveness compared to the prior four seasons. A large part of that had to do with having such a veteran group in the backend with Jordan Battle, Brian Branch, and DeMarcco Hellams all returning as 3rd year starters.
In the past 4 years, the Star position, or slot corner, has essentially been more in line with the safeties than the corners. This was somewhat a Pete Golding thing, but Nick Saban has a 15-year history of trying to put his best athletes in the secondary at that position.