Report: Alabama Football to Hire Kane Wommack as New Defensive Coordinator

The South Alabama head coach leaves the Mobile program to run the Crimson Tide's defense under the new regime.

Alabama football head coach Kalen DeBoer didn't have time to waste once he took over as head man in Tuscaloosa. He had to move fast to build a coaching staff in order to ensure that the transition was a seamless as possible to maintain a championship standard and culture in the Crimson Tide program. 

DeBoer's offensive choices appeared to be easy choices as he hired numerous coaches from his staff at Washington, with Ryan Grubb serving as offensive coordinator.

The Alabama defense was a different story as prior defensive coordinator Kevin Steele announced his retirement last week and prominent secondary coach Travaris Robinson left The Capstone to take a co-defensive coordinator position at the University of Georgia.

According to reports from Chris Low and Brett McMurphy DeBoer is set to hire South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack as the next defensive coordinator for the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

Wommack is 36-years old and played college football at Arkansas and Southern Miss as a fullback and tight end. His father, Dave, is a retired college football coach who spent his final five seasons in the game as defensive coordinator at Ole Miss under Hugh Freeze. 

He broke into college coaching at UT-Martin as a quarterbacks coach before moving to Jacksonville State under Jack Crowe. Wommack spent one season with the Gamecocks before joining his father to coach defensive backs at Ole Miss. 

After two seasons with the Rebels he was given the defensive coordinator position at Eastern Illinois where his Panthers had the second best defense in the Ohio Valley Conference in scoring.

Wommack joined the South Alabama Jaguars for his first stint in Mobile in 2016 where he became defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. His team finished in the top five in the conference in numerous defensive categories and in 2017 he oversaw the Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year in safety Jeremy Reaves.

He joined Tom Allen in 2018 at Indiana where he worked as a linebackers coach for one season before being promoted to defensive coordinator the next year. It was in 2019 on the Hoosiers staff that he and DeBoer worked side-by-side as defensive and offensive coordinator respectively. The Hoosiers went 8-5 and lost to Tennessee in the Gator Bowl.

Wommack has been the head coach of the South Alabama Jaguars for the past three seasons leading the Sun Belt program to a record of 22-16 with two bowl trips. His initial season finished with an underwhelming 5-7 record but he managed winning records the subsequent two years. 

He will implement a new style of defense for Crimson Tide fans to get to know after 17 years of the Saban system. Wommack runs a 4-2-5 defensive scheme relying on athletic safeties to make plays in and out of the box. 

The Jaguars finished 15th in total defense in 2023, allowing 313.2 yards per game while forcing 22 defensive turnovers and allowing just a 34% 3rd down conversion rate. 

Alabama Football Assistant Coach Offseason Tracker: Defensive Coordinator Set