Last season, Alabama football’s defense finished fifth in the nation in turnovers. A week into spring practice, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said he wants more.
Speaking to reporters in Tuscaloosa on Friday, Wommack was asked about his biggest points of emphasis for spring. He mentioned the takeaways, especially in coverage.
“I feel like we left a lot of opportunities out there from the standpoint of our players being able to anticipate,” Wommack said. “When you play with vision, based on the quarterback’s drop and where his eye progression goes, you have to be able to react to that and play with anticipation as opposed to reaction, and we’re not anywhere where we need to be yet.”
The Crimson Tide is young in the secondary this spring, with Keon Sabb and Domani Jackson out with injuries, and Malachi Moore off to the NFL. Their absences have created opportunities for some of the younger Alabama defensive backs to get reps.
The secondary wasn’t his only priority. In fact, Wommack mentioned another area he wanted to see improvement in first.
“We want to be able to create more negative plays,” Wommack said. “And that’s hard to see a little bit when the quarterback’s not live. That’s a good thing, that we don’t let our quarterbacks go live right now.
“But at the same time, I thought we took some great strides and had some really good numbers from an efficiency standpoint defensively, but we were not anywhere where we needed to be in terms of creating negative plays. That has to be a point of emphasis from a fundamental standpoint, schematically, and then just having an understanding of that.”
The two points of emphasis work together. Safety Bray Hubbard discussed how the front lines creating more pressure and negative plays can help the secondary create more turnovers.
“When you get pressure on the quarterback, throw the ball, he can make an indecisive throw and we’ll be right there to pick it off,” Hubbard said. “I mean the big thing is, up front, just getting those turnovers, getting those pressures. Flipping and getting the ball back to our offense. But at the same time, when you get a pass rush, you want the D-line back there so the ball came come or or be a tipped ball and we can get it or whatever it is, so I think the D-line is going to play a crucial role in that and we’re gonna get a lot more takeaways.”
Alabama goes on spring break for a week before resuming practice. Spring ball continues through April 12, when the Crimson Tide will play the A-Day game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
