Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack explained what he needs to see from his Crimson Tide defense after a near-upset to South Carolina on October 12 and an actual unfathomable upset to Vanderbilt the week prior.
"Often, what happens in coverage is a domino effect of one player doesn't do something, so now another player gets ready to compensate for it, and you may have taken away their first or second read, but ultimately if you give the quarterback time, we're going to have an issue," Wommack said on October 14.
"Doing our job, our 1/11th of the defense, is critical. That's something we keep harping on to our players, is make sure you're focused on your responsibility and your job within the framework of the defense and trust that everyone else is going to do their job as well."
Wommack honed in on a specific play – a Mazeo Bennett Jr. 36-yard touchdown catch on 4th and 9 to cut Alabama’s lead to 14-7 – and explained why his defense’s coverage broke down on it.
"We had a breakdown in terms of playing over the top of the route that we should've been expanding on in that particular coverage," Wommack said. “But there were other pieces that did not help, in terms of being where they needed to be at the beginning of the play so that we could leverage things out properly, in terms of our spacing in that coverage."
Kane Wommack lobbied to be replaced as Alabama’s defensive coordinator by Nick Saban
AL.com’s Joseph Goodman wants Wommack out of a job in Tuscaloosa and pitched, perhaps half-jokingly, for Nick Saban to return to the Crimson Tide to be DeBoer’s new defensive coordinator.
“Is it arrogance, as Nick Saban suggested on ESPN College GameDay? Is it poor preparation by the coaching staff? Or is Alabama just another Florida State without Saban as the coach? Seriously, what is it going to take for Saban to come out of retirement? Maybe he doesn’t even need to be the head coach. Maybe he can just be a part-time defensive coordinator,” Goodman wrote.
“Here’s an idea. Just fire current defensive coordinator Kane Wommack before Monday and let Saban work two days a week. Saban is already on the payroll. It wouldn’t exactly be charity work.”
Wommack won’t be out of a job before the end of the season – DeBoer giving into fan pressure in a way Saban never did would definitively mark the turning of a page in Tuscaloosa that must stay put – but his seat can be set ablaze by December if Alabama’s defensive complacency persists.
