Can we please have an honest conversation about Kane Wommack's defense?

I think part of it is changes in terminology and formations.

In stress situations, you can tell players are confused fairly often. I think what Saban pounded into their skull’s surfaces then since they’re reacting to that instead of what they should.

One thing that is a constant head scratcher is a lack of big bodies in short yardage. That may be personnel.

When we bring pressure we’ve looked good. It’s when we’ve been up against power run power option teams that we just sit back and get run on for 3-8 yard chunks that absolutely grind the clock and the defense down.

I think the a lot of the young DB's played some good ball this season. Need some game changers up front though. Hopefully some of the young guys can develop because it isn't easy getting those types out of the portal.

Given how young it is, especially in the secondary, it far exceeded my expectations. Lowest PPG average for a Bama defense since 2017. They had a terrible game against Vanderbilt. Other than that, they only had three games where they allowed more than 20 points. That's a huge improvement over the late Saban era.

For point of comparison, look at the 2022 defense, which was stacked with seniors. They allowed more than 20 points in the majority of their games (7) and had multiple games forcing two or fewer punts.

Got embarrassed against Vanderbilt and didn't make adjustments.

Got embarrassed by OU when they rand the Vanderbilt offense and still couldn't shut it down.

Not learning from your mistakes isn't a good formula.

The stats are pretty good but there are times the scheme doesn’t pass the eyeball test.

I can’t forget the screenshot of a 3rd and 1 against Oklahoma where we are lined up in a 3 man front. Against a QB who is a converted RB out of high school that was chewing us up on the ground, frequently right off tackle. And it was deep enough in the game that we knew we weren’t facing a Carson Beck. If we were facing a run and shoot offense, MAYBE I get the 3 man front. Against Oklahoma, no way.

You have to practice it until you can’t unlearn it.

I’m hoping Wommack comes back, I think we’ll only get better on the defensive side.

There was some head scratching moments for me this year and at times he lacked adjustments without a doubt, but I will say it’s encouraging to see our guys play down hill and come up and strike people. It is refreshing to see the turnovers as well. I’d give Kane a B- over all. I am cool with him staying. I’m far more tired of seeing failed designed QB runs, I know that.

At a high level, Alabama's defense is a solid unit in 2024 despite a number of injuries and a fair deal of inexperience in the secondary. I think the explanation for the Vanderbilt and Oklahoma performance is simply growing pains in a new scheme. The adjustments needed were "players execute the defense as designed in response to the pre and post snap actions taken by the offense."

At the end of the day, Alabama lost those two games because each opponent got 14 points off of turnovers (1 from short field, another from a pick six). They may not have been banner days from the defense but the offense put them in a bind.

DeBoer's team philosophy seems to be an efficient offense paired with a takeaway seeking defense. They want the offense to create pressure to score and the defense wants to punish the opponent for being more aggressive. It is a valid strategy, arguably the strategy to take in the modern game. However it goes poorly when the offense has multiple turnovers. Especially when they take points off the board for you and/or put points on the board for the opponent.