Why Kalen DeBoer hired Kane Wommack, retained two Tide assistants
MOBILE, Ala. – Kalen DeBoer has seemingly rounded out his on-field staff, and one of his biggest hires was bringing in Kane Wommack to be his defensive coordinator at Alabama.
Wommack was the head coach at South Alabama but has a history with DeBoer. The two were at Indiana in 2019 when DeBoer was the offensive coordinator for one season while Wommack was the defensive coordinator and coached linebackers for the Hoosiers. Wommack will also be the inside linebackers coach of the Crimson Tide on DeBoer’s staff.
Why did DeBoer target Wommack to be his defensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa?
“I just know he’s really good,” DeBoer said. “I saw him every single day in practice there in 2019, going against him. And I think he’s just continued to take those steps forward the year after I left. Him being a head coach and especially understanding everything here in Alabama, the state, I know he’s a relationship guy. He just brings a lot of energy and organizational skills that I know are going to be really important for our program.
“I know it says a lot about the University of Alabama to be able to pull someone like Kane and all the things that he had going for him with the success he’s had a South Alabama.”
Wommack also has ties to the state of Alabama with two stints at South Alabama – one as the defensive coordinator in 2016-17 and another as the Jaguars’ current head coach. He has also spent time in the South, which is big for DeBoer’s first staff, with early stops in his career at UT Martin, Jacksonville State and Ole Miss (as a grad assistant from 2012-13).
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Hiring someone who knows the state was important for DeBoer, who has never worked in the South. Wommack was a smart hire in that regard, but so was retaining a couple of assistants from last year’s staff at UA. Freddie Roach and Robert Gillespie are both staying.
Roach, a former linebacker at Alabama, has been the Tide’s defensive line coach for the last four seasons. Gillespie has served as Alabama’s running backs coach the last three years.
“I think, first of all, you listen to what the people around the program have to say in regards to their relationships with players, how strong their position groups were, who they are as people as well as what their impact has been in recruiting,” DeBoer said. “And these guys have been amazing.
“They helped us keep the team together, I think, through some tough times, even before I was hired. I think they had a huge impact on that. And then once I got here, just locking arms with them and trusting them, just like I asked the guys to be all in on me, I was all in on them, and they’ve been that way, as well. They’ve allowed us to hit the ground running here these last two weeks on the recruiting trail.
“I can see very clearly that we made some really good decisions in keeping them here.”
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