Malachi Moore shares how he's grown as a player in Kane Wommack's new defense

Alabama‘s defense has been the pride of joy of former head coach Nick Saban since 2007. But with offensive-minded head coach Kalen DeBoer at the helm, new defensive coordinator Kane Wommack is now tasked with upholding the high standards of the Crimson Tide defense.

The Crimson Tide defense will have a lot of new faces this season, but one familiar face is safety and team captain Malachi Moore. Moore spoke at SEC Media Days on Wednesday about how he’s grown in Wommack’s defensive scheme ahead of his fifth season.

“I will say I’ve gotten better at just my knowledge of the game, understanding different schemes and that nature,” Moore told SEC Network‘s Alyssa Lang. “Coach Wommack coming in and bringing a new defense, it forced me to learn a new style of football that I really wasn’t accustomed to. But I think that’s going to help me a lot, just be versatile and playing in two different defenses.”

Moore spoke more in-depth about what differs between Wommack’s defensive scheme compared to Saban’s pattern-matching approach. It’s a scheme that Wommack and Saban previously met together about to discuss in February in order to reach a level of continuity for the players, and hopefully success.

“I would say we [run] a lot more vision-based coverages now. So a lot of eyes (on) the quarterback, breaking on the ball, and really kind of allowing our playmakers to go and make plays,” Moore explained. “It’s not really a lot of a lot of checks, it’s kind of more like allowing our playmakers to make plays and really keying on small details of our defense is really going to make us great.”

Moore is one of the few returning members of Alabama’s secondary fun last season, losing standout players like Caleb Downs to the transfer portal and starting cornerbacks Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry to the NFL Draft. As Moore pulled back the curtain on adjusting to a new group and building chemistry in the process.

“It’s been fun building that chemistry, like you said, not a lot of new faces. The first day we came into the DB meeting that kind of sat down like,” Moore said pretending to look around the room. “Nobody here from last year.

“So it kind of felt a little weird, but the guys that’s came in from young guys to older guys, everybody’s been doing great and we just continually talk about being the best secondary in the country. And that’s something we believe and that’s something we hold on to each and every day when we come to work at practice.”

Alabama was considered one of the best secondaries in the country throughout Saban’s 17-year tenure with the team. That standard obvious puts even more pressure on both Wommack and Moore this season to perform at a high level now that Saban is no longer in the picture.