Kane Wommack details conversations with Nick Saban about Alabama defense

New Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has a tall task ahead of him, inheriting a Crimson Tide defense that has been a staple of the program throughout the entirety of former head coach Nick Saban‘s 17-season tenure with the team.

Upon Saban’s retirement, he did mention that he would still be involved with the program. Doing just that as he’s recently been having meetings with Wommack as he transitions to the new chief of Alabama’s defense.

“It has happened, in fact, our second in-person meeting happened again this morning,” Wommack told ‘The Next Round’ on Wednesday. “So we’re ‘ripping and running through some of the install and all those things.”

“I was promptly early. I told my wife I was like cramming for a final the night before, making sure that all of my cut-ups and everything was ready to go for that meeting,” Wommack added.

Wommack has spent the last three seasons as the head coach at South Alabama, perennially orchestrating an effective defensive attack that schematically has similarities to Alabama’s scheme. As he now looks to collaborate with Saban to maintain some of those pillars and ultimately the Crimson Tide’s success.

“Coach has been awesome. He really’s been helpful, he’s honest, gives me his real thoughts. I ask him real questions,” Wommack said. “I want to know this team, I want to know what he envisioned, what he built from a defensive perspective obviously and how to best take what was done the last 17 years and how they’ve evolved over 17 years to the point they are now and how we best need to make that transition from a defensive scheme.”

In the past two seasons South Alabama’s defense has been a top-three unit in the Sun Belt Conference, holding opponents to just 315 yards and 20.6 points per game. Doing so by employing a defensive attack that like Alabama’s utilizes a multitude of defensive backs and versatile athletes on the edges and perimeter of the defense.

“There’s a ton of carryover in what we do and what Coach Saban has done, my dad was a longtime defensive coordinator in the SEC. Dave Wommack had great defenses, was kind of one of the originators of the 4-2-5 defense. But we are a little bit more of a 3-4 nickel defense, that’s really what Coach Saban has been the last few years where they’re able to move in and out of four-down and 3-4,” Wommack explained. “So there’s a lot of carryover but I want to make sure I kind of minimize some of the things that our players are going to have to learn so that I can understand their verbiage as well.”

It will surely be fascinating to see what Alabama’s defense looks like next season without Saban, but it’s clear that his influence on the unit will still be present as Wommack looks to maintain their elite defensive standard.