Kalen DeBoer assesses Alabama's defensive execution at season's midway point

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama ranks outside the top 40 teams in the FBS in the top defensive categories, at least statistically, at the midway point of the college football regular season.

The Crimson Tide enters Week 8 with the 41st-best scoring defense (20.8 ppg), the 54th-best rushing defense (129.17 ypg), the 55th-best total defense (342.5) and the 62nd-best passing defense (213.3). One area where Alabama is among the top 25 teams is opponent third-down conversions (31.25 percent), but it has fallen 21 spots in the last two weeks.

Asked to assess the Crimson Tide’s defensive execution, DeBoer pointed to that stat.

“I think there’s every week something a little different that presents itself,” DeBoer said. “I know the last couple of weeks, the big thing that’s been focused on has been getting off the field. You look at yards per play, and we’re making some teams earn it, but we’ve just got to get off the field. When those drives continue to stack on top of each other and there’s more plays that your defense is having to play, it starts to wear you down a little bit more. 

“I think our guys, fortunately, we rotate enough in to where we can hang in there for four quarters. But there’s always going to be little elements, and it’s not just defense, but it’s offense and areas that are going to pop up and the way people attack and the way some people may view your schemes or your personnel.”

Alabama’s yards per play allowed is 4.64, which is tied for fourth in the SEC and 16th in the nation. The only problem is the Crimson Tide defense has been on the field for too many plays. Alabama has defended 436 plays in six games, which is the second-most in the SEC behind Ole Miss (199), and the Crimson Tide ranks 120th out of 134 FBS teams.

One week after allowing Vanderbilt to go 12-of-18 on third down, Alabama was better against South Carolina. But the Gamecocks had a 16-play drive out of halftime that featured five third downs and five conversions. Though the Tide improved, there’s still room for more.

“That continues to be an area where we are not operating at an optimal level,” said Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack. “If we want to be the defense I think we are capable of being, we have to execute at a more consistent level on third down. 

“When you look at it, there certainly were some challenging things that USC presented for us, but particularly on third down there was a lack of execution on our part. Not putting our eyes in the right place, doing our job at a consistent level.”

Alabama (5-1, 2-1 SEC) is six games into DeBoer’s tenure, which means it’s six games into a new system on both sides of the ball. The Tide coaches are working to find the balance between running what fits into the identity of the defense while continuing to build on the unit.

“You continue to work on those things that we know we’ve got to get better at and emphasize, but we’ve also got to be ready for those others things, too, that just are part of the game,” DeBoer said. “And making sure that we’ve got the answers, whether it’s the schematics or just that our guys are confident going out there and playing. This is part of the process. This is part of the progress that’s got to be there when you’re instituting new systems.

“… A lot of the ups and downs that you have, or maybe just execution didn’t go as well as you want. Sometimes that’s not just the base stuff that you do but it’s the stuff that you know you have to continue to incorporate to continue to get to where you want to be because it’s got to be a volume of things over the course of a 12, 13, 14, whatever the season is and the length of it.”

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