How the Alabama defense has become elite at creating takeaways

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It took a few games, but the Alabama defenses has rounded into form in a major way over the back half of this season.

The Crimson Tide struggled to find itself out of the gate, in part due to the integration of a new defensive system manned by defensive coordinator Kane Wommack. In those early-season struggles, the Alabama defense was unable to create takeaways with any consistency, and it was a point Wommack routinely hammered during his weekly press conferences.

Since then, Alabama has risen to the No. 3 team in college football in turnovers forced. The Crimson Tide has forced 14 interceptions on the year, while forcing and recovering 10 fumbles. Alabama has forced three or more turnovers in five straight games, which is the longest streak in the FBS.

Wommack explained that creating takeaways is something that can become second-nature to a player if you rep the right things in practice, a concept he learned from his father, who was a long-time defensive coordinator.

“My dad taught me this years ago. Takeaways, it’s almost like muscle memory. You have to continue to preach it. You have to continue to drill it,” Wommack said. “You talk about it before we go out to a scout-team period. When we start, every practice, we do a takeaway circuit. That started from spring ball to fall camp to every day we go out there on Tuesday and Wednesday practice.

“We have six different drills that our guys go through that emphasize creating interceptions, punching the ball, raking at the quarterback, a number of different areas where you can take the ball away from an offense. What happens is, all of a sudden, you do those drills day in and day out, and then you go to scout-team periods and you say, OK, this period right here, we’re not going to work on tackling, we’re going to work on punching the ball out. I don’t want to see any wrap-ups. All I want to see is you punching the ball out. All of a sudden, it becomes muscle memory on game days.”

Wommack continued to explain how that muscle memory contributed to one of the takeaways forced against Mercer on Saturday: a scoop-and-score forced by Domani Jackson and recovered and returned by Zabien Brown that was Alabama’s first defensive touchdown of the season.

“When Domani Jackson comes off the edge on a corner fire, he thinks, ‘Oh, I have a chance to knock this ball out,’ and that’s the exact same drill he’s been doing for nine months now, is punching the ball in that exact moment,” Wommack said. “It’s just now becoming muscle memory for him. Those are the things that are exciting, and it’s becoming the identity of who we are as a team. That has to continue moving forward.”

Wommack also praised wolf linebacker Qua Russaw for the tipped interception he secured against Mercer, the second interception in three games for the redshirt freshman.

“That interception came because a number of things happened. They got in a third down call. They hard counted, they checked. We checked into a pressure, and then everybody up front executed that really well,” Wommack said. “Deontae Lawson, we talk about matching the hands of the quarterback, so when the quarterbacks hands went up he matched the hands. The ball got tipped. Really, if the ball didn’t get tipped, Qua is really still in a really good position there to go — he may have picked the ball off anyway. But now when the ball gets tipped and he has to dive and work through that.”

Playing complimentary football, the Alabama offense has also taken steps forward in both capitalizing on takeaways with touchdown drives, and limiting turnovers themselves. At this stage in the season, Alabama ranks No. 4 nationally in turnover margin, a stat that teams with a chance to win a national championship typically rank highly in.