Alabama head coach Nick Saban appeared on multiple television and radio shows in his time on ESPN’s campus Tuesday, and most of his interviews were dominated by the quarterback battle.

Although he answered the questions, Saban informed the interviewers and those tuning into the various programs that there’s more than just one competition on the Crimson Tide’s 2018 team.

“We have other areas on our team that if we’re going to have the kind of team that we’d love to have that we’re going to need to rebuild and that’s going to have to make a tremendous amount of progress that there’s a lot of competition at. Like in the secondary, a couple of places in the front seven,” said Saban during a taped 10 p.m. CT airing of SportsCenter.

“We lost a lot of good defensive players, and we won a lot of games at Alabama because of the defense that we played. We only gave up (11.9) points a game last year, so that’s pretty amazing in this day and age in college football.”

Eight members of Alabama’s defense were drafted in the seven rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft, including three first-rounders, while two more defenders were signed as undrafted free agents.

The Crimson Tide returns only three defensive starters from its title-winning team in 2017 in linebacker Anfernee Jennings and defensive linemen Raekwon Davis and Isaiah Buggs. The three returning starters are the fewest in the SEC and tied for the fewest among Power 5 teams, along with NC State, Penn State and Indiana. Only one FBS team returns less (UConn, 2).

So, where on the list of concerns is that for Saban?

“That’s probably the No. 1, and nobody talks about it,” he said. “Everybody wants to talk about the quarterback situation, but no one talks about what we have to do to rebuild the defense. And I think that’s the No. 1 concern. … I think it’s a concern in terms of how that part of our team develops.”

But the second-biggest concern has to be behind center, right? Not so fast.

Saban pointed to the six new assistant coaches he added to his staff this offseason and the two assistants from last year’s team that were promoted to coordinators and how they will perform as a unit and for Alabama’s players the during the 2018 season opener on Sept. 1.

“We have a lot of new coaches, and that chemistry on our staff has been really, really good so far,” Saban said. “A lot of new energy, a lot of new enthusiasm, a lot of new ideas that all have helped us grow as a program. But the relationships that the new coaches have been able to build with the players, which is probably the most important thing in transition, has been really, really good, aight.

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“But now we’ve got new coordinators, we’ve got a new special teams coach. How can those guys take the next step in how the implement in the game, which is a whole ‘nother ball game. So, that’s going to a real key for us, as well.”

Make no mistake about it, though, the impending fall camp battle between Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa is important to both Saban and the team’s success for the upcoming campaign.

“It’s a big deal because I think it has a lot to do with the chemistry of the team and how the team comes together, the leadership of the team and the confidence that the players have in the guy that’s going to distribute the ball every play, which was the quarterback does,” Saban said.

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).