What Alabama’s defensive coordinator told Zabien Brown before game-changing interception

The Third Saturday in October was moments away from being a tight ball game before halftime, but an interception returned for a 99-yard touchdown by Zabien Brown gave Alabama a comfortable 23-7 lead over Tennessee going into the locker room.

Alabama football’s defensive coordinator, Kane Wommack bragged on Brown and explained what he said to the sophomore and the rest of the defense before the game-changing interception.

“That was a tremendous play that Zabien made, and I think one of the things that’s so impressive about Zabien is that whatever you emphasize, whatever you work, it shows up on gameday,” Wommack said. “That’s really a lesson that all of our players on defense can learn from Zabien. The consistency that he brings, you know, that situation in particular, we had come out in a different personnel grouping in the play before, and then we had asked for a timeout so that we could see what they were gonna be in. And then, we brought the guys on the sideline and talked about ‘Hey, listen. This is probably going to be some type of power pass situation, right? Have your eyes in the right place, do your job, do your one 11th of the defense’, and Zabien was just all over it. In the moment, his eyes are in the right place. He knows what to expect. He does his job, and so we built like a cover two concept over there. He goes and makes the play.”

Wommack said there have been some intentional conversations with Alabama defenders about scoring off of turnovers and what they can do specifically to make that happen, and Zabien did exactly what Wommack wanted to see.

“We talk about it all the time, you know, we haven’t done it nearly enough, in fact we’ve only had two defensive touchdowns since I’ve been here, both of them were Zabien, but when you get the ball, we are trying to score,” Wommack said. “We’re trying to make sure the next unit that goes out onto the field is our field goal unit. Really tremendous job by him. He put the ball in his outside arm, tucked it away and secured it and was off to the races. Did a really great job there.”

Alabama will look to increase the number of defensive touchdowns this season and have an opportunity to possibly create a turnover for a score this Saturday as the Crimson Tide prepare to face a South Carolina team with a vulnerable offensive line and a quarterback who was sacked four times last week.