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Wasson: Kane Wommack has turned around the Tide D — and his rep — almost overnight
By David Wasson
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The Faustian bargain that college football coaches make to succeed in their profession is a simple one: A big-time paycheck in exchange for succeeding or failing in broad daylight – piles of silver to endure public ridicule when teenage young men don’t properly execute commands under intense scrutiny.
It’s simply part of the deal, one that fuels near-constant turnover as well as 24-hour sports talk radio, thousands of pundits pecking away at keyboards and cheap-seat chirpers all fully believing they can do the job better than the guys under the headsets.
The old saying goes something like this: If a coach listens too much to the idiots hollering in the stands, they will soon be sitting among them. For much of this season, it would have almost been excused if Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack might have let a bit of that noise filter through his headset and into his ear canals.
Because Wommack has been variably assigned thusly: as the central reason the Crimson Tide fell to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, as an underachieving coordinator destined for the bread line sooner than later, and as a toxic fly that infiltrated the ointment of greatness that is Alabama football.
But then a funny thing happened in Baton Rouge.
Facing the clear and present danger of an LSU offense led by a potent quarterback and inside the pressure cooker that is Death Valley after dark, Alabama’s defense performed like a million bucks. Poof … just like that, Wommack went from Public Enemy No. 1 to a valued member of a Tide coaching staff poised to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Alabama chased LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier around for 60 minutes like he stole money from them, flexed against a Tigers offense that ranked 28th in total yards (448 yards per game) to give up 343 yards, and most importantly held a team that was scoring 32.8 points per outing to just 13.
The performance was as impressive as it was complete, sans LSU’s meaningless drive at the end of the game against Tide second-teamers for a desultory touchdown. No one expected a shutout, based on how the Tigers go up and down the field on opposing teams – but boy if Wommack’s “Swarm D” didn’t almost pitch one.
If Wommack was feeling the heat with Alabama’s season a single misstep away from being irrelevant, you never would have known it Saturday night. There was the outward look – going with a black sweatshirt under a black puffy vest – which seems to completely disregard heat or humidity the same way Wommack does at practices.
And of course, there was the performance by Wommack’s unit, which forced 3 more turnovers to both thwart potential LSU scoring threats and gave the ball back to a Tide offense that was merrily bludgeoning the Tigers with their relentless rushing attack.
Those 3 turnovers (2 interceptions and a fumble recovery) marked the Tide’s 4th consecutive game with at least 3 takeaways. By comparison, Alabama only had 1 game with 3 or more takeaways over its first 5 games this season. But they’re now 5th in the country with 21 takeaways.
“I love where our defense is at right now,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said after Alabama’s 42-13 domination. “We might give up a play here or there, but they move on to the next one, go out and execute and they’re getting that mindset where 1 yard is too many.”
It hasn’t always been that way in 2024, which is why Wommack’s stock has never been as high as it is right now. The Tide nearly choked away a huge first-half lead against Georgia, and then allowed 40 points to (gasp!) Vanderbilt – the nadir for Wommack’s unit internally and among the vociferous Crimson Tide Nation.
A month later, it is an entirely different story. In the past 8 quarters against two Top 25 teams (Missouri and LSU), the Tide defense has allowed precisely 1 touchdown: that garbage-time TD against the reserves in a nearly-empty Tiger Stadium.
Credit has to go to Wommack, especially if the pitchforks were out for Wommack after the loss to the Commodores. Not that he particularly cares, of course, at least not outwardly. It’s onto the next play, the next series, the next opponent.
“I think our guys are taking steps in the right direction,” Wommack told reporters Monday. “I think we’re trending in the right direction as a defense. I do think that our players’ understanding of what we’re trying to do from a scheme standpoint, I think our players fundamentally are getting better and better. … And they’re starting to play with a lot of offensive recognition and anticipation.
“So to me, the makings of a good defense are to create enough negative plays and game-changing-style plays and also eliminate explosives at the same time. I think we’re doing that at a higher level than where we were maybe at the beginning of the season.”
Indeed the Tide are, and at precisely the right time – as Alabama is out of losses to spot the rest of the nation if it wants to remain in the College Football Playoff picture. Wommack’s swarm defense mentality is finally clicking in with the Tide, and with that evolution comes more signal and less noise toward their maligned coordinator.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
