Alabama football’s defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said the Crimson Tide went into the spring with an emphasis on building depth on defense.
The Tide battled injuries at multiple defensive positions throughout the 2024 season. Those injuries pushed some younger and inexperience players onto the field, and some of them showed they were up for the challenge while others showed they needed to continue to develop, per Wommack.
Alabama wanted to build trusted depth this spring to avoid this situation in the future, and Wommack feels this was addressed.
“First thing that we wanted to make sure we did is we wanted to continue to build depth that we can trust when it matters most,” Wommack said. “You think about certain games that we had this past season, particularly on the backend, we did not have a lot of depth, and it showed up. You’re playing Tennessee, you’re playing really well. In the second half of that game, five of our top six defensive backs were out, and we had not built enough depth there at that position to be able to handle that. And so those are things that I think that guys that are efficient in their execution, guys that we can trust to go out there and do their job. I thought we’ve addressed those needs in a number of areas, which I’m excited about.”
Multiple players across the Tide’s defense were highlighted throughout the spring for showing growth as potential depth pieces. Jeremiah Beaman, Edric Hill, Jordan Renaud, Kelby Collins, Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., Dijon Lee, Cam Calhoun, QB Reese, Nikhai Hill-Green and James Smith are just some of the names mentioned by players and coaches.
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Justin Smith is the Director of Recruiting & Managing Editor for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via @Jdsmith31Smith
