Jumbo Package: What did Kane Wommack learn in his first SEC season?

Happy Thursday, everyone. Yesterday may have been Gump Day, but Geoff Schwartz over at Fox Sports has extended it for you.

While it might take some time for the offense to get humming at the pace it would like, I trust this staff and Alabama’s talented players to get it done.

Now, let’s look at the defense. 

The Bama D was not what we’d seen under Saban, but that should surprise no one. 

The Tide lost a defensive genius and some of their better players hit the portal. The defense was far better at the end of the season than it was in the beginning, which is something important to note. 

Alabama returns 69% of its defensive production, including multiple defensive linemen. 

The linebacker room is down Jihaad Campbell, but it has plenty of experience, plus the addition of Nikhai Hill Green from Colorado. The secondary returns five players who have starting experience.

In short, this roster might be the most talented in the SEC. 

Geoff is rolling with the Tide for 2025.

Kane Wommack spoke after practice yesterday, most notably discussing his own growth as a coordinator in his first SEC season.

Wommack on where he’s grown as a defensive coordinator…

“I understand our players much better, and I understand the league a lot better, right? I think probably the biggest thing is you go into the offseason knowing that answers – not the answers to the test, right, but you at least have the study guide, you know what I mean, a little bit better than you did in Year 1. And so, having anticipation for what we’re going to see, having an understanding of what our players do well and how to feature those players has allowed me to be really aggressive in our install in Year 2. So spring ball, we were like that. And then certainly in fall camp, I mean, we have just layered on layered on layered the scheme for them, and they’re doing a good job of handling it.”

Kane also noted some players who have stepped up during camp, and isn’t concerned about the lack of turnovers from his unit.

“Off the top of my head, DaShawn Jones was a little bit banged up in the springtime,” Wommack said. “He’s taken some great strides. Jordan Renaud just continues to grow and improve. Really, really pleased with him.

“And then some of those young defensive linemen are really taking steps in the right direction. Both Freddie Roach and Jamie Moseley, those guys have done a good job. Isaia Faga is doing a really good job. You’re seeing some things, from London Simmons is improving. Steve [Bolo Mboumoua] is improving. So, it’s nice to see some guys that maybe you thought might be a little ways away that might have a role for us at some point here during the season. That’s encouraging.”

“I think our offense is doing a fantastic job of taking care of the football,” Wommack said Wednesday. “It was an emphasis coming out of last season that we had to do a better job as a team taking care of the football and creating takeaways. Certainly, we were able to do that a year ago. They’re making it more difficult on us. When the bullets are flying, and it’s live, and you can affect a quarterback, that’s always the indication of how we’ll do. So, I feel good about where we are defensively.”

To Wommack’s point, the defense can’t touch the quarterback in practices or scrimmages.

“That quarterback, that’s merchandise,” defensive lineman Tim Keenan III said. “You touch him, in the NFL, you’re cut from the team. Just imagine, you touch Tom Brady, you’re going to be at home with your mama. So we stay away from the quarterback. Of course we try to get as close as possible, but we want to stay in practice.”

Here’s hoping that the offense is simply not taking undue risks.

It’s hard not to root for Ty Simpson.

“I’ve talked to Coach Saban a lot,” Simpson said. “He always would tell me, don’t worry about the outside noise. Don’t worry about external factors. Don’t worry about anybody else. Just be the best you can be. I really didn’t understand that when I was a young guy.”

Simpson, who’s now in his fourth year of college football, said he was always worried about somebody else, other schools and he was thinking about “I could have played there,” he said.

But he remained at Alabama and didn’t transfer out. That provided him with the opportunity to play for DeBoer.

“Then when Coach DeBoer came, he talked about going 1-0 and winners win because that’s what winners do,” Simpson said.

College football fans in general should very much hope that sticking around for four years works out for him. But, he plays for Alabama so the bulk of those who don’t wear Crimson hope he crashes and burns.

Zach Barnett at Football Scoop believes that DeBoer reuniting with Grubb is going to pay big dividends.

“I think that’s a big credit to my success is that DeBoer and Grubb were so close,” former Fresno State quarterback Marcus McMaryion told Bama247. “I want to say I was one of the least-sacked quarterbacks in the country because they were so diligent about throwing every kind of pressure and taking the blitz period serious. I knew every look that that defensive coordinator had run in the last three years, even when he was at another school. Once you get into the game it’s like slow motion.”

Getting Grubb back means that DeBoer has reunited the brain trust from the 2023 Washington dream team — a group that put quarterback Michael Penix, Jr., two wide receivers, and two offensive tackles in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. Those Huskies completed 202 passes of at least 10 yards, the most in college football over the past three years, and were undefeated until falling to Michigan in the national title game. Good deal, right? So long as everyone gets along.

May they score 45 points a game this season.

Matt Stahl believes that Ty’s touchdown drive against USF was something of a turning point in 2023.

However, the Crimson Tide offense still came through. After a few more nice runs by Williams, Simpson himself powered into the end zone, scoring the game-clinching touchdown with just 33 seconds remaining.

“I’m proud of our players,” Saban following the 17-3 victory. “I’m proud of the way they competed in the game. Talk about having your back against the wall quite a bit. Guys came through when they needed to. It was a great drive.”

Simpson hasn’t seen that much playing time with a game still in question since. That comes to an end on Aug. 30, when Simpson is scheduled to get the first start of his Crimson Tide career, after winning the job in preseason camp.

Lifelong uber-Gump Mark Ingram continues to contribute however he can.

“I wanted to be the best that ever carried the football,” Ingram said on the “New Wave Podcast” with Ryan Williams and Dre Kirkpatrick Jr. “Like, and that’s crazy to say or crazy to think about, but that’s what drove me every single day. I wanted to be known as the best running back to ever carry the football. And I respect every running back who has come before me who was great. And that’s really what inspired me: the Walter Paytons, Adrian Petersons, Emmitt Smiths, the Frank Gores. Those guys, I wanted to be better than them. And I believed I was better than them.”

Ingram, Alabama‘s first Heisman Trophy winner and the 2009 SEC Offensive Player of the Year, reminisced with Williams and Kirkpatrick on his three-year career with the Crimson Tide from 2008-10.

There are a few new college football rules this year, most notably the one aimed at faking injuries that will charge a timeout or a 5 yard penalty for any player who goes down after the ball has been spotted and the new “defensive false start” rule. How rules are actually applied by the buffoons in stripes is always the concern. Here is a complete summary for you, and check out these two that didn’t get as much press:

Defenseless Players
A player attempting to recover a loose ball is added to the list of defenseless players.
 
Automatic Unsportsmanlike Conduct Fouls
All forms of gun violence are not permitted in college football and simulating the firing of a weapon is an automatic unsportsmanlike foul. Added to the rule in 2025, if a player brandishes a weapon, it is considered an unsportsmanlike act.

Kind of concerned about how that defenseless player addition will work. Bodies fly toward the ball any time there is a fumble, and some head collisions are inevitable. Can’t wait until the first time a recovery is taken away from the defense for this. And I’m glad that they finally clarified that pulling a weapon is unsportsmanlike. You never want to leave anything open for interpretation. I assume that the opening scene of The Last Boy Scout (gratuitous violence warning) would be a penalty and perhaps a suspension.

Last, longtime college football writer Ralph Russo asks this question about Texas.

Notably, there is plenty of space to add more hardware. Smart planning. After two consecutive appearances in the College Football Playoff semifinals and a program-record 23 players selected over the last two NFL Drafts, head coach Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns seem to be just getting started.

For the first time, Texas will enter a college football season as the No. 1 team in the country, as the Associated Press on Monday proclaimed the Longhorns the preseason frontrunners. The Coaches Poll did the same last week. It’s yet another milestone for a program that is well past the point of being merely “back.” Now, the Longhorns are trying to solidify the elite status that comes from churning out national title contenders on a yearly basis.

With one national title this millennium, the ‘Horns have a long way to go before we entertain any such nonsense.

That’s about it for now. Have a great day.

Roll Tide.