Everything Kane Wommack said after Alabama’s sixth preseason practice

Alabama DC Kane Wommack spoke to local reporters after the Crimson Tide's sixth practice of fall camp. Here's everything he said.

Alabama DC Kane Wommack (Charlie Potter / BamaOnLine)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama held its sixth preseason practice on Saturday morning, and after the August 6 workout, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack spoke to reporters inside the Hank Crisp Indoor Practice Facility. Below is everything Wommack said after Practice 6.

Wommack on fundamentals vs. install vs. in fall camp…

“That’s a great question. When you’re a team in year two, offensively, defensively, there’s certain liberties that you get to enjoy, right, in the first five, six days of fall camp. Because you can carry a larger catalog of defense and offense than we would’ve, you know what I mean, in spring ball, in fall camp a year ago, because our guys understand it. They know it. We’ve been doing it over and over and over again.

“And really, for these freshmen that are coming in as mid-year enrollees, that’s one of the things for me to be able to do with them when our other coaches go on the road recruiting. Grubb and I are sitting here spending time with them, meeting with them, installing before we ever get to spring workouts and then spring football. And then the summertime, we go through the installation and so by the time you get to fall camp, you can do a little bit more. Always, it always comes back to the fundamental elements, right? It’s hard to move on schematically if you’re not where you need to be fundamentally. I think that we’ve certainly taken the jump in that direction in year two.”

Wommack on how to increase the sack numbers…

“So, that was one thing that, if you point to some of the areas that we had to improve upon from last year, being able to create negative plays in the backfield, being able to affect the quarterback. Certainly from the standpoint of creating more sacks defensively, it was something that we needed to look at. Fundamentally, we tweaked some things, and schematically, just created some more variance in some of the things that we’re doing in passing downs. I think we’re in a good spot right now. I think that’s an ever flowing, okay, what does this team do this week, how elusive is their quarterback, how do we want to contain him, and also force pressure and those things. Week to week, those things are gonna change, but if you build a catalog of defense in the offseason, those are things you can kinda go to week to week to create variance in what you’re doing.”

Wommack on finishing pressures…

“There’s creating the opportunity to make the play, and ultimately production comes when a guy executes his job and then he can finish on the ball carrier. We talk to the guys about this all the time. Before a ball is snapped, before you make a play, what does it take to bring a grown man to the ground? You gotta ask that question to yourself internally so that you are in position to physically go execute and bring a grown man to the ground. So, then the fundamental aspect of that is we work all different variations of tackling.

“So, we have tackle circuits that are focused on pre-contact, before we ever get to the point that we put ourself in position to leverage the ball and then work to a proper contact tackle. Then we have a contact tackle circuit, and we do different variations of tackling. The actual act of the tackling itself, and then like today, we worked situational tackles, so things that show up with the quarterback scramble, goal-line tackle, feist tackle in open field, swipe desperation tackle. Those are all different variations of being able to ultimately make the play when it matters most.”

Wommack on lapses in run defense last season…

“I think schematically, when you’re dealing with one-plus style offenses, you’re going to be more effective in the run game when you use all 11 bodies in the run game. That’s just simple math and numbers, and that’s about as far as I can go with math and numbers. But when it comes to being able to stop the one-plus quarterback run, those are elements where you have to have numbers and leverages at the point of attack, and you’ve gotta account for one more person out of the core.

“So, there’s certain elements to, do you want to sell the farm and say, hey, I don’t want to give up a four-yard run every now and then, but at what cost? And that was one of the things I think we did a good job last year is limiting explosive plays and finding ways to create enough negatives as the season went on to be able to get the offense into second-and-long, off-schedule style plays. Naturally, when you deal with a quarterback run system, you’re just gonna give up a few more yards in the run game. Unless you want to play that game, right? Where a guy can throw it over top. And to me, the game of football now is about limiting explosives that the offense can create, especially in the passing game.”

Wommack on Qua Russaw liking to watch James Harrison; any crossover…

“I haven’t thought about that necessarily from that perspective, but James Harrison is one that I would like Qua to play like as well. I think Qua is, in a room full of freaky people, Qua is the freakiest. He is freaky athletic and I think he is a special talent in terms of his strength. You watch him at the point of attack, when we start talking about violent hands, which is one of our ‘Bama fundamentals that we continue to stress and harp on, Qua’s ability to destroy blocks and get off and make plays.

“There was a play against Auburn, a guy came and pulled against him, and I mean he absolutely obliterated him at the point of attack. Those are things that show up on tape in terms of his strength and physicality. But ultimately it’s about knowing. What I like about Qua is knowing when to and when not to from a physical standpoint, be too aggressive. And I think he’s learned a lot, last year with the experience that he had, and I think he’s, what I could call, has turned himself into a controlled, aggressive player.”

Wommack on how he and Ryan Grubb complement each other…

“Well, we’re both really competitive people and so, in that way, we don’t complement each other at all. But it’s fun. It’s fun competing against him every day. The experiences that he has had and that I’ve had, and we’ve never got to work together, but it’s really enjoyable talking ball in the offseason. I think when you see the game from a holistic view, which I think both of us kind of see the game, we have an appreciation for the other side of the ball and what’s good scheme and what are good fundamentals. So we kind of bounce those ideas off each other, which is really great.

“I think we’re both aggressive in nature. We have kind of an attacking-style mentality. We’re going to be aggressive offensively. We’re going to be aggressive defensively. There’s a variation of scheme things that we do, right? I’d say we both carry a decent amount of scheme. But ultimately, what’s fun about him is that he has a sense of urgency to better his side of the ball. And hopefully, if I get up in the morning and take the steps to do the same thing defensively, right? We are the pushers. The coordinators are the ones holding everybody accountable to the standard, from a detail standpoint of accomplishing the vision that we have in our heads.So he’s fun to work with. Really enjoy it.”

Wommack on Justin Jefferson…

“JJ is a very instinctive player and I think schematically, we’re built for instinctive players to cut it loose and go play, right? SO there’s certainly an element of discipline that any great defense has to play with, but there’s certain creative freedoms and instinctive freedoms that we try to tap into schematically on defense. And I think JJ, this is a really good fit for him.”

Wommack on Noah Carter…

“Noah’s doing a really good job. I think it’s so fun watching guys grow in their discipline. Usually, sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back. And then, ultimately, it just starts to click. Yhonzae Pierre is a great example of that. This is Yhonzae’s third year? This is Yhonzae’s third year for us and you’re starting to see him take those steps in the right direction. This is Noah Carter’s second year. You see him taking steps in the right direction, but, eventually, there will come a point where, if he’ll keep pushing, you just see a massive step that a guy takes. And then, all of a sudden, he’s a different person from a maturity standpoint, from a discipline standpoint, from accountability. So it’s fun to watch those guys move in that trajectory.”

Wommack on Alabama’s interior defensive linemen…

“Obviously having TK back for another year’s huge. Not just physically and who he is as a football player, but the accountability he has in that room for a bunch of other younger players. I think he does a great job of holding that room accountable, of pushing the standard in that room. Beaman is a great example of a guy who grew up fast. Where he was a year ago as a true freshman at the beginning of the season to the role that he played for us in the bowl game, and played it well, to where he was in the springtime, to now, this dude has made great strides.

“He feels like a veteran player out there even though he hasn’t had some of the reps across the last season of say a Zabien Brown or other true freshmen had. So really proud of those guys. I think Freddie and Jamey Mosley, I think those guys are doing a great job of pushing that group from a physicality standpoint. These are the dog days of fall camp where you kind of got to push through. Big guys, they have to be pushed now. They don’t naturally want to run around the field for 60 snaps, or whatever it may be including individual. Like the direction of the group, but certainly their maturity and development is going to be a huge indicator to our success.”

Wommack on Alabama’s safety depth…

“I don’t want to put the cart before the horse saying this here, but I do think, to this point, we have shown significant amount of maturity and development from our defensive back room. You think about where we were going into the Tennessee game a year ago. I think I mentioned this to you guys before, right? We played six players for five positions up until that game. And I’m talking the vast majority of snaps that mattered most. And five of those guys went out. We are in a much better position now with the depth.

“And I would say probably one of the more aggressive turnarounds that I have ever seen from a year to another year in terms of guys that you trust to get on the field. And I think that’s a tip of the cap, right, in terms of Courtney Morgan and our defensive staff have done in recruiting. And then I think the development that you’ve seen from Maurice Linguist and Jason Jones to bring those young guys along has put us in a position to go compete at a much higher level this year, from a depth standpoint, than where we were a year ago.”

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Category: General Sports