Kane Wommack has this Alabama secondary moving in the RIGHT direction

Clint Lamb discusses how Alabama Crimson Tide defensive coordinator has flipped the secondary after the Nick Saban era.

Transcript

00:00The quickness in which Alabama has rebuilt its secondary post Nick Saban is nothing short of

00:07incredible. Let's talk about it. What is up, everybody? Clint Lamb from A to Z Sports and

00:15Cover Crimson. When you look at Alabama's secondary and just everything they lost post Nick Saban,

00:20and you compare that to where they're currently trending under Kane Womack,

00:24the quickness in which that rebuild or that transition happened is nothing short of remarkable,

00:31and it all starts with the guys they lost to the NFL draft following the 2023 season. Whether you're

00:37talking about Tyrion Arnold, whether you're talking about Kula McKinstry, Jalen Key, those were three

00:42of your five starters in the secondary, but as you know and I know, it's no longer just about the NFL

00:48draft and the risk of losing guys to the NFL draft. It's also the transfer portal, and Alabama lost

00:54a ton of guys to the portal once Nick Saban elected to retire, and even before that, if we're speaking

00:59candidly, but you had Caleb Downs, Star Safety go to Ohio State. You had Trey Amos go to Ole Miss. You

01:05had depth guys who were expected to step up into much bigger roles, such as Des Ricks or Earl Little

01:10Jr. or Antonio Kite or Christian Story or Jake Pope. The number of guys that Alabama lost from its

01:18secondary following the 2023 season is unlike anything that I've ever seen. 11 of the

01:24the 15 players from that secondary were not on the roster in 2024. Now, did Alabama complain? Did

01:31their coaching staff complain? No, they put their heads down, and they went to work, and not only

01:35did they recruit extremely well, but they also developed well, too. Like, you had three five-star

01:40freshman corners come in, and you got various levels of impact from all three of them, whether

01:45it be Zabian Brown being a full-time starter, whether it be Jalen Mbakwe coming in. You know,

01:50he's also playing wide receiver now, but last year he played corner, and he was cornerback three or

01:55cornerback four, depending on who you talk to, but he was a big part of that rotation. Zay Mincy

02:00started off as a corner and contributed there a little bit before moving to safety, and then by

02:05the end of the season, he was getting a start against Michigan in the bowl game and performing

02:09quite well. So, those types of impact, immediate impact from freshmen certainly helped in the

02:15transition. It was also the coaching staff's ability to go out and recruit from the transfer

02:20portal, whether you're talking about Damani Jackson, Keon Saab, Deshaun Jones, Cam Howard,

02:26King Mack. They got varying degrees of impact from all of those guys, whether you're talking about the

02:32headliners with Damani Jackson and Keon Saab. A guy like Deshaun Jones provided very strong, very

02:38quality depth, whether it be out on the perimeter or at Husky. You had King Mack making an impact on

02:44special teams. Cam Howard is a guy who I think they're going to rely on a little bit more moving

02:48forward. They just have done a phenomenal job of not only identifying high school talent, recruiting

02:54that talent, and then developing that talent, but they're also doing the same thing from the

02:58transfer portal. And that's one of the things that I wanted to point out was just regardless of where

03:03they're going to get the talent, they seem to be finding the right guys who come in and live up to

03:08the billing. You talk about Dijon Lee, a five-star freshman who's going to be part of this freshman

03:12class. You talk about Ivan Taylor. These are guys who have arrived on campus, both top 100 recruits,

03:19both very highly sought after players, and they're living up to the billing early. And even the guys

03:25who maybe weren't as highly sought after, a Drake Kirkpatrick Jr., who was one of the lowest rated

03:30signings that Alabama had in his 2023 class, he's now starting to emerge as a potential Husky option,

03:37and you're seeing development there. So you've got to give Kane Womack and Moe Linguist

03:42and Courtney Morgan, all of those guys, a lot of credit for the job that they have done

03:47rebuilding this Alabama secondary post-Nick Saban.