Everything Kane Wommack Said Ahead of Alabama Football's Road Trip to Oklahoma

The Crimson Tide defensive coordinator highlighted the progress his unit has made.

Oct 12, 2024; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack coaches from the sidelines during the game with South Carolina at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images / Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama Crimson Tide defense has come on strong in the last month and is coming off another positive performance against the Mercer Bears. Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack spent time with the media in the Naylor Stone Media Suite inside the Mal Moore Athletic Facility and spoke about his unit's progress.

Opening Statement

"Looking back on last week against Mercer, obviously it was great to get a win, and one where we were able to play a number of guys. Got some young players in the game, which was really good. I thought the guys were really dialed in throughout the week. They were locked in and focused. Early in the game, I thought there was some inconsistency. I thought we gave up too many yards in the first half, more than we had given up in some SEC games. We really challenged our guys in the second half to respond and become more consistent. What was exciting about that is even with some younger players playing in the game, we played with a lot more consistency — at the end of the first half and the rest of the game in the second half, I thought we played pretty consistent football. 

"We are continuing to take the ball away from people. There’s a sense of urgency from our guys to do that. There’s an effort that you see, play in and play out from our guys, to take the ball away. Obviously, the takeaways themselves — the forced fumbles, the interceptions — is what everybody else sees, but when you go back and watch the film, there were numerous times when our guys were trying to take the ball off of them. It’s just a matter of time when, on any given play, you can create a takeaway. I think our guys have to continue to do that. I think that’s become a huge piece of our identity as a football team, taking the ball away from people, turning those takeaways into touchdowns. That has to continue.

"Going into this week, this is certainly an exciting environment that we’re going in to play in Norman, Oklahoma. They’re a very proud program, who’s entering the SEC obviously this year. They’re going to fight. They’ve had some ups and downs, but I think they’ve fought really hard as a football team. They’ve got a quarterback that, to me, is very talented and can make all the throws. He does some things with his feet that has kept them in position to move the chains. He does a really good job in some of those zone read game and all the different quarterback option concepts that they have. Does a nice job delivering the ball, can make all the throws across the board.

"I think they run the ball hard out of the backfield, and they have some guys coming back in their wide receiver corps that are pretty dynamic. When they were healthy at the beginning of the year, they were doing some really special things. You’re starting to see those guys back and playing now.

"It’ll be a great challenge for us, again, going on the road. Certainly, what we were able to do the last time on the road, I think our players have understood what it takes to go have a sense of urgency to go play well on the road. That needs to show up again on Saturday night. Looking forward to the week of preparation and prepare our guys to maximize their opportunity in Norman."

How have you established a culture of takeaways?

"My dad taught me this years ago. Takeaways, it’s almost like muscle memory. You have to continue to preach it. You have to continue to drill it. You talk about it before we go out to a scout-team period. When we start, every practice, we do a takeaway circuit. That started from spring ball to fall camp to every day we go out there on Tuesday and Wednesday practice. We have six different drills that our guys go through that emphasize creating interceptions, punching the ball, raking at the quarterback, a number of different areas where you can take the ball away from an offense. What happens is, all of a sudden, you do those drills day in and day out, and then you go to scout-team periods and you say, OK, this period right here, we’re not going to work on tackling, we’re going to work on punching the ball out. I don’t want to see any wrap-ups. All I want to see is you punching the ball out. All of a sudden, it becomes muscle memory on game days. When Domani Jackson comes off the edge on a corner fire, he thinks, ‘Oh, I have a chance to knock this ball out,’ and that’s the exact same drill he’s been doing for nine months now, is punching the ball in that exact moment. It’s just now becoming muscle memory for him. Those are the things that are exciting, and it’s becoming the identity of who we are as a team. That has to continue moving forward."

How has Bray Hubbard played since moving into a starter role?

"I think what’s most impressive about Bray is his preparation has not changed now that he’s the starter from when he was the backup to Keon Sabb. When the opportunity came. Bray was so locked in every single week and prepared like he was the starter, did a great job of communicating with the twos in practice every single day and was probably the glue that held some of those young DBs together, that when his opportunity came, he was ready for it. He’s playing at a really high level because he’s prepared at a really high level all season long. That’s one of the things I’m most pleased and impressed with Bray. He’s a natural playmaker. He’s got great instincts on the ball. He does a really good job of understanding how to play with leverage. From a run-fit standpoint, he’s doing some tremendous things there as well. Just really pleased when you see a guy get rewarded for all the work he’s put in. When the opportunity came, he’s made the most of it."

Wommack on his relationship with Jalen Milroe…

“Obviously, he’s got a gravitational pull about the way that he carries himself, right? Here’s a guy that is extremely talented, has probably a ton of – what do you wanna say – attention and fame and all those other things but doesn’t ever walk by you in the hallway without saying hello or asking about your family, asking how you’re doing. And I think a guy like that is just really impressive, to me, the way he carries himself. I enjoy being around him. I enjoy talking to him all the time. I’ve always said a quarterback and a punter are a defensive coordinator’s two best friends, and so I like to hang out with my friends every now and then and encourage them.“I think the way that he has battled through some of the adversities that we’ve had this season is really impressive, and that’s really what that conversation was about. Here we are on the back end of the season in November, battling our asses off every single week, and I think he’s a huge reason of why we’ve been able to have success in this moment. Just giving him a little encouragement. I hope the volume wasn’t too loud whenever you caught that.”

Wommack on his assessment of Alabama’s pass rush; how to exploit Oklahoma’s pass pro…

“Obviously, when you look at that, you always wanna be mindful of disrupting the quarterback, and I think you have to do it different ways. Obviously, when you have the personnel to just simply rush somebody off the edge every single time, right, that might be one way. I think at times, we can do that. I think our success in generating pass rush through creating multiple looks up front. And so we’ll continue to do those things and mix some of the pressures that we’re giving and mix some of the looks. Even some of the formational or the alignments that we show pre-snap and then what we get in and out of so that we can create as many one-on-one matchups as possible. And then also try to schematically isolate maybe a certain guard or running back or an offensive tackle or whatever it may be.“So I think we’re doing a better job of that. Part of that is me being better on the back end of the season, recognizing our personnel and what we do really well. And then just as you start to see things from week to week in terms of what we do well and what we can take advantage of based off what we see from the offense. So I think we’re trending in the right direction, but certainly, that needs to continue.”

Wommack on what this season has been like; the pressure of being the Alabama DC…

“How so? I’m just kidding with you. It’s a very different role than being a head coach, and part of me leaving a head coaching job is because I trusted the guy that was going to be in the role of the head coaching position. Kalen, just to watch him and see the way that he has navigated this team throughout our first year, I’ve told you guys this before – his superpower is his consistency. In the face of adversity or success, he’s the same guy over and over again. And I think that relentless consistency has been what’s allowed us to kind of navigate through the highs and lows that we’ve seen so far this season and putting in a position to play our best football on the back end of the season.“For me, to see that in him and then for him to be such a supportive head coach for the way we do things offensively, defensively, special teams, has allowed me to maximize what we’re doing defensively because I feel so supported from the head coach position. And so he gives great thoughts. He gives great accountability. We trust each other, so we can say whatever needs to be said, and he does a tremendous job in that regard.“And so I’ve really enjoyed the nuances and the little details in coordinating and making adjustments at halftime and figuring out how to stop people and maybe how to – the challenge, right, is when somebody’s doing something well against you, how do you still find a way to stop what they’re doing and yet, still be aggressive so that you can create takeaways and get off the field on third down. And quite honestly, I would say I’ve gotten better and better as the season. I’ve probably knocked some of the rust off as we’ve gone through the season. And I think that’s what everybody in the building has to do. I think you either get better or you get worse, and I think step by step as a football team, we’re getting better in that, and that includes me as a play-caller and a defensive coordinator.”

On Qua Russaw and his interception...

"The dude’s made two great interceptions, so far this year, and I think that he's continuing to grow as a football player. Part of what makes you a great defender, especially at that wolf position, is that you're creating production for the defense, and I think we're seeing him do more and more of that. That interception came because a number of things happened. They got in a third down call. They hard counted, they checked. We checked into a pressure, and then everybody up front executed that really well. Deontae Lawson, we talk about matching the hands of the quarterback, so when the quarterbacks hands went up he matched the hands. The ball got tipped. Really, if the ball didn't get tipped, Qua is really still in a really good position there to go — he may have picked the ball off anyway. But now when the ball gets tipped and he has to dive and work through that. So I just think he's doing a really good job of continuing to stay relentless in this process. And now that, because of injury and because he's producing at a higher level, he is playing more and more consistent as we go through the season. And certainly when you think about some of the things that have happened in that room, and we've got a couple of guys that were down, he's stepping up at the right time."

On Yhonzae Pierre's game against Mercer

"First Yhonzae, I think, is taking steps in the right direction. I think it's fun for me to watch the maturity of a young man. Certainly you think about year to year, but just for a younger guy, right? You can almost see weekly, someone maturing and the way that they're going about their preparation to maximize their opportunities on game day. Yhonzae is one guy that you could point to. There's a number of them right now, in our young defense, which we are, that are trying, you know, to operate at a more consistent level than they were early on in the season. And I think a lot of that has to do with, there's a lot of older players that are setting the example and those older players are producing and our younger players are saying, This is what it's going to take. I don't think Yhonzae Pierre would be in the same position had he not had Que Robinson in that room as the example of what it's supposed to look like."

On preparing for both OU QBs

"And then from a quarterback position, that's always the case, right? Every single week, if you're doing your due diligence as a defensive staff, you go, ‘What is this team's identity? What do they want to get done from the quarterback position, and who do they want to feature from a skills position standpoint?’ And then if they have another quarterback that comes in the game, what are your answers going to be? And so you're either working those things and maximizing your opportunities if that happens or you don't. And so that's something that every single week we're going to look at and and try to do. I do think there's a lot of similarities in what they ask those guys to do. Skill set wise, there might be some, some nuances there. But for us, I don't know if it is completely different from one guy to the next in terms of what they were asking those guys do schematically. So it'll be a challenge. I mean, I think this team, when you're playing a night game in your home stadium against Alabama, we're going to get every bit of the best effort. And that, to me, is the you know, regardless of who you're playing — I use the example of our guys, the last three weeks you went up against three top 25 teams and some really good offenses and you gave up more yards against Mercer than you did against those three teams. So what matters is your ability to be able to play with a sense of urgency in the moment and not wait around but to do it from the first play to the second play to the last play the game. And I think we're learning those things as a team."

On the sub package with Lawson, Campbell and Jefferson

"All those guys are older, more experienced guys, and so there's a level of experience that those guys carry together. Athletically, from a linebacker standpoint, those three dudes are — they can make space tackles, they can do things, they can blitz off the edge, they can blitz up the middle, they can play zone coverage, we can ask them to play man coverage on backs and tight ends and occasionally even receivers with help. But they can do those things right? So their skill set allows us to do a lot of things schematically, and those guys can cover a lot of grass and space. So it's an advantage to us to be able to have three of those guys on the field. And then I would say, from the other side, Jihaad Campbell and what he does from a pass rush standpoint — we put him at the defensive end position the other day, he goes in and gets the only sack that we came up with the day. So those are the things that we've got to continue to utilize our personnel. Because, quite honestly, just like everybody in the country, everybody's a little more thin at the end of the season. And so you gotta find creative ways to get your personnel in position to maximize value for your defense. So I think in those three guys on there does that."