Good news went public at about 8:30 p.m. CT on the Monday before closing an underachieving season.

Dylan Moses, perhaps the costliest loss of the 2019 Crimson Tide season, announced he’ll have a 2020 Crimson Tide season.

After the All-American tore up his knee in late August, the presumption was a long rehab for the NFL combine and the pro career predicted long ago.

Instead, a night-time Instagram post delivered a message that went beyond the headline. Emphasizing football is what he does, not who he is, the Baton Rouge product said he wants his degree for life after football.

That time hasn’t come, however.

“The 2020 season will be very personal to me,” Moses wrote, “and I want nothing more than to finish my Alabama career in style.”

It goes without saying this is a huge score for Pete Golding, both the defensive coordinator and middle linebackers coach. Moses’ injury paired with senior Joshua McMillon’s almost matching ACL tear spelled disaster for a middle linebacker group stretched thin already. Mack Wilson went pro a season earlier than Nick Saban advised so it was up to true freshmen Christian Harris and Shane Lee.

Both are talented with bright futures but they were in a no-win situation as 18-year old rookies. Harris wasn’t even a linebacker in high school and he didn’t have the benefit of spring practice to get some taste of the speed at which major college football is played.

Moses brings a steadying presence to the quarterback spot of a complex Alabama defense. He was the veteran voice obviously missing from a defense that regressed through attrition. This program overcame incredibly bad linebacker injury luck in 2017 but just didn’t have the depth when disaster struck in August.

Opponents picked on the inexperienced middle linebackers with schemes designed to attack them. Moses was always around the program but couldn’t have the impact he’ll have next fall counseling them from the field instead of the film room.

“I think a lot of the times,” Golding said Sunday of the freshman linebackers, “they are looking for confirmation and the guy beside him doesn’t really know either. And I think that’s been the big difference.”

Moses will also have the opportunity to help star middle linebacker recruit Demouy Kennedy restore Alabama’s reputation for grooming elite middle linebackers. Harris and Lee will come back better for having gone through a 2019 like that.

It’s still unclear if McMillon will return for a sixth season of eligibility but Moses’ NFL rejection on an Orlando Monday night looks be one of those defining moments for a defense (relatively) desperate for positive momentum.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.