Alabama’s final scrimmage of fall camp opened many questions for Crimson Tide’s fans.
The most significant one, however, is has Alabama made the turn to being respect again on defense?
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Kalen DeBoer, the Tide’s head football coach, called last week’s game-like practice the “most physical” he has ever been part of since becoming the successor to Nick Saban. He praised the defense for bringing its A game, including its excellence in forcing a couple of turnovers.
Kane Wommack, Alabama’s defensive coordinator, shares the same viewpoint. He stated to the media after Tuesday’s practice that he was impressed with the physicality. Wommack said the tackling and execution were much better.
“I thought it was incredibly physical,” Wommack said about the second scrimmage. “Probably the most physical I remember being part of. I thought I saw another gear from our players and another level of intensity that I had not seen yet. It’s exciting.”
Wommack enjoyed the secure tackling from defensive backs, linebackers, and defensive linemen. He felt the defense performed well situationally too, especially on third down. Wommack said the defensive backs have improved with finishing tackles in a dominant position.
“One of the things for us from a physicality standpoint is we talk about hard shoulder tackling,” he said.
“There is pre-contact emphasis, and then there is point of contact emphasis. The first thing you have to do is close space on the ball carrier and then hold leverage. I thought we did a really good job of that. It allows them to get into a position where we use same foot, same shoulder, and then finish on top. They did a really good job of closing space, holding leverage, and finishing.”
Wommack’s big thing on defense is closing space.
He knows that if an offense has less space to work in, the defense has a higher opportunity to secure marquee tackles. The excellence that happened last week was Alabama closing space defensively and finishing tackles. Tide fans are excited about seeing the dominance return to that side of the ball.
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Stephen M. Smith is the senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
