What Kane Wommack feels Alabama has to do to have a dominant defense in 2026

Nov 22, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack yells to his defense during the game with Eastern Illinois at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images

Alabama football’s defensive coordinator Kane Wommack wants to have a dominant defense in 2026.

The Crimson Tide ranked 13th in the country in total defense in 2025. Alabama’s 86 tackles for loss ranked 55th in the country, and the Tide’s 33 sacks ranked 54th. Wommack said those numbers must improve because the road to dominance starts upfront for the Crimson Tide’s defense.

“One of the things that we just have to continue to do is find ways to create negative plays,” Wommack told reporters. “We just haven’t. We still haven’t been able to generate the pass rush for the first year and a half, until towards the back end of the season, when Yhonzae (Pierre) was able to kind of give us something coming off the edge and just that affecting the quarterback. And when we get in two-minute situations, having to be able to have something where we can go four-man rush, where we’re not having to play man coverage and pressure out of it. Those are things that we’ve got to continue to work on. But to me, I think we’ve done some good things here, and I know our numbers and all that stuff have been pretty solid for the last two years. We just haven’t been a dominant defense consistently throughout the season. We’ve shown flashes of it, but I’d like to be more dominant up front.”

The Alabama defensive coordinator feels Alabama addressed some critical needs in the transfer portal to help reach the goal of being more dominant.

“I think we’ve addressed some of those needs with the guys that we’ve got in the transfer portal,” Wommack said. “Really excited with some of the new defensive linemen, excited about the growth that I see from some of the guys that have been here in our program.
And so we’re finding creative ways to get them in the backfield a little bit more.”

Alabama football will continue to work towards being more dominant on defense as spring football moves forward.