Hoops, you have to understand the responsibilies of force and contain. Saban's defense is designed to defend from the inside out. Upshaw is often the "force" player on runs that come to his side. His priority is to maintain proper outside leverage and "force" the runner back inside to where the meat and strength of the defense is at. That's why Bama's defense doesn't give up long runs.
He can't tee off on every play. On 3rd downs, he can usually let it go a little more.
Aldon Smith didn't beat any tackles with a flat out speed rush last year. He only had 4.5 sacks in 10 games, and 2 of those came in the first game against Illinois. He whipped up on Nate Solder the year before, but Solder couldn't even get out of his stance against Cam Jordan.
Aldon Smith is allowed to come in for the 49ers strictly in pass rush situations and throw responsibility to the wind and tee off on QB's while he has fresh legs. If he becomes a full time starter and has to play the run on 1st and 2nd down every game, his sack totals are going to go down... but he's actually going to be a better football player.
Upshaw is immediately going to make the defense better for whichever team he goes to. He's not Von Miller, Derrick Thomas, or Terrell Suggs as a pure college pass rusher, but who is?
I just don't think it's possible to tell yet who's going to be racking up double digit sacks as a rookie. A lot of it is going to depend on how they're used, and whether or not they're starting players and required to play disciplined football on 1st and 2nd down, as opposed to strictly being a fresh legged pass rusher.
Go back and look at Upshaw's game last year against Cam Newton, and then the bowl game against Michigan St. Look at any of his games this year against Florida, Ole Miss, LSU, and Auburn. The guy can flat out get after the quarterback when the situation calls for it and he's allowed to cut loose.
