Alabama football’s defensive coordinator Kane Wommack thinks Florida State’s expected starting quarterback Tommy Castellanos’ mobility will present the Tide with a challenge after Gus Malzahn was hired as the Seminoles’ offensive coordinator.
Castellanos transferred to Florida State from Boston College after the 2024 football season. The Georgia product has rushed for 1,427 yards and 15 touchdowns during his three-year collegiate career after starting his career at UCF and transferring to Boston College.
Malzahn coached Wommack when the Alabama defensive coordinator was a player at Arkansas which makes him very familiar with the veteran offensive mind.
Wommack expects Malzahn to use the mobile quarterback’s running ability in the Seminole’s season opener against Alabama.
“You look at our first game of the season against Florida State,” Wommack told reporters at the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet. “Athletic quarterback. I played for Gus Malzahn. I know how Gus does things from a from a quarterback-run game. Mike Norvell does the same thing. So those are the things that you kind of have to be aware of that everybody has an element to that in their game.”
The Alabama defensive coordinator went on to share he thinks the Tide will face their multiple running quarterbacks as teams across the SEC acquire more mobile signal callers.
“They’re trying to shape their offensive scheme around their personnel and their quarterback, and that’s an obvious statement, but I think when you look at our league right now, you’ve got a number of teams that like to run the ball offensively through the quarterback position,” Wommack said. “And so that presents another number of challenges in and of itself. When you have wide receivers that can stretch you laterally and vertically, you’ve got tight ends that can make plays in space and so finding ways to handle things on the backend from a coverage perspective but be structurally sound for the quarterback run game is something that we really had to evolve and adapt as the season went on from a defensive perspective. And that’s something that’s kind of on the forefront of my mind as you approach every game.”
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