Kane Wommack assesses Alabama defense, previews Georgia game during bye week

Alabama lost three of its four SEC road games last year. The Crimson Tide lost its 2025 season opener at Florida State. With a highly anticipated road trip to No. 5 Georgia less than two weeks away, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack knows Alabama faces a challenge.

The Tide must handle its upcoming road game better than its Week 1 loss in Tallahassee.

“Going in hostile environments where everybody has good players and finding a way to execute through adversity,” said Wommack before speaking at the 68 Ventures Bowl 1st and 10 Club in Mobile, via AL.com. “And if you look at us right now as a defense, I think last year against Vanderbilt, first half against Oklahoma and then against Florida State, I didn’t think we handled adversity very well on the road. And so that’s something that we got to get fixed. 

“How we take a punch and how we move forward is critical. And I think our coaches and players have done a great job of kind of taking ownership of that. And I think we know what we need to do moving forward. But ultimately, we got to go do it. And so that to me is the challenge of any great team is how they respond well to adversity, and particularly on the road. 

“And I think you’re going to look up at the end of the season and it’s going to be the teams that respond to adversity and the teams that execute to the most consistency, regardless of wrinkles and things that you want to do from a game plan standpoint. It’s going to be about your ability to execute well, and particularly on the road.”

Alabama (2-1) will take on Georgia (3-0) in Athens on Saturday, Sept. 27 (6:30 p.m. on ABC). Both teams are on bye weeks before the conference clash. That’s why Wommack was talking in Mobile on Monday night rather than at his typical press conference in Tuscaloosa.

Below is a roundup of everything Wommack said on Day 1 of the Tide’s first bye week.

Wommack on where he feels like things are at after three weeks…

“I think the last couple of weeks we’ve taken some steps in the right direction. I think obviously, you look back on the first game of the season and I think for our players, when we have adversity on the road, we’ve got to do a better job of handling it as a sideline. I talk about this all the time, our sideline is a living, breathing organism, and you’ve got to feed it the right way. And I didn’t think we did a good enough job when adversity hit. I thought we played timid, we played on our heels a little bit, and I thought our players have answered the bell really well from a standpoint of the way they’ve prepared in practice, prepared for when adversity comes again, how we’ll handle that. 

“Obviously, we’ve had success the last two games. Probably minimal adversity, but it’s coming and we’ve got to get our guys prepared for it. I think Coach DeBoer has done a really good job of kind of feeling the pulse of our players and what they need and the response that we need to give them as coaches day in and day out. And so, I think we’re taking steps in the right direction, but ultimately, it’ll be how we respond when adversity hits again.”

Wommack on how satisfied he is with Alabama’s pass rush…

“I think we’re taking steps in the right direction from a pass rush standpoint. I think we’re going to be challenged more as the season goes on. If you look at any good defense, it has to affect the quarterback one way or another. So, if we can do it with a four-man rush, great. If we can’t, I’ve got to find another way to do it. And so, those are the things that we’re constantly looking at.

“I think we’ve got some players that can generate some juice off the edge. And yet, at the same time, I think if you just line up in a four-man pass rush all day long, right, somebody will get clued into that or they’ll max pro or start chip protecting or whatever it is. And so, we’ve got to continue to find creative ways to pressure the quarterback because you’ve got to make a guy uncomfortable. And those are the things that ultimately, as a play caller, you’ve got to keep in the forefront of your mind as it goes along.”

Wommack on the biggest difference in the defense from Game 1 to now…

“I thought we let the first game, we thought we let early adversity put us on our heels. And I thought we played timid as a defense and that’s something that is highly disappointing, but we’ve got to own it. And it is where it is and I think everyone in the building has done a really good job of kind of taking ownership of what we’ve got to do moving forward. 

“I think we’ve played very aggressive the last two games. I think we’ve played with a high level of energy that we’ve brought from our sideline that translates out onto the field. I think we’ve let our players kind of put them in a position to go be aggressive and attack the ball, and those things seem to be working.

“You look at the landscape of college football right now across the board, it’s an execution game and it’s a play-hard game and it’s tackling in space. And if you do that, you’re going to have a good day. And if you don’t do that, you look at some of the scores in the SEC that — we had an 11 o’clock kick and it was kind of the first time I really got a chance to start watching other teams and other defenses. 

“Right now, everybody’s got the same issues. I mean, you’ve got to make space tackles and you’ve got to execute on third down and you’ve got to find ways to affect the quarterback. And I think everybody’s trying to find themselves because every team has warts and they’ve got young players that are going to be out there on the field representing your team. And you’ve got to find a way to get them ready in the early part of the season.”

Wommack on his early impressions of Georgia…

“I’ve watched a lot of Georgia already and you start to make plans. Right now, this time of year, you’re doing, and for the first bye week, you’re doing self-scout. You’re kind of watching some of the things that you’ve done and some things that you put on tape and things you want to add or adjust or get corrected. And then at the same time, how does that apply to your next opponent? So those are things that we’re looking at right now. 

“I’ve been really impressed with their quarterback. I’ve been really impressed with Gunner (Stockton). Highly efficient in what he’s doing. I think Coach Bobo’s doing a great job of kind of working the frame of what they do offensively within the framework of what Gunner does well. He runs the ball well. He does a really good job of making decisions in the perimeter game. I think they’ve upgraded their athletes out on the perimeter in the receiving corps and found ways to get guys in one-on-one positions to make space tackles. 

“Doing a good job in the run game. Changing it up a little bit. One-plus quarterback stuff. So they’ll present a lot of challenges for us. I mean, I thought they did a great job against Tennessee, had a really good plan. And if anything, you saw a team that had some grit when adversity hit on the road that they answered the bell. And that to me is, that’s an impressive job by their coaches and players to get that done. Something that we’ve got to do a better job of.”

Wommack on how he would defend Ryan Williams…

“There’s a lot of things with Ryan that you can try to, in some ways you can try to press him, and then, you can try to play double coverage and over top. There’s a lot of things you can do, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to tackle the guy, right? And so, I think Ryan is just so dynamic with the ball in his hands. And I’ve watched him just work to get better and better as a receiver. The splits, the alignments, the releases. I think he’s just continuing to improve his game. 

“And ultimately, I think our offensive staff has done a nice job of kind of finding ways to get him the football. And once he gets the ball in space, I mean, he’s truly, he’s just so gifted. I mean, he’s got great spatial awareness when he gets the ball in his hands. And then all of a sudden he can make something happen, make one or two guys miss. And at that point, he’s off to the races.”

Wommack on the latest on Tim Keenan…

“Tim’s doing a really good job. He got to go through warm-ups the other day in pregame, and we just felt like we wanted to make sure that he was 100% before we got him back or whatever. 100%, I don’t know, most guys nowadays, it’s hard to be 100% in college football and go through a season. But he’s in a really good place, and we anticipate he’ll be ready to go in two weeks.”

Wommack on Bray Hubbard’s response vs. Wisconsin…

“I thought Bray was a number of guys that had to kind of take ownership of the way that we didn’t play well enough, didn’t execute well enough in the first game. And I thought Bray is a tremendous football player who’s got a lot of pride in the way that he does things. He plays with great effort. And the biggest thing coming out of that first game is we’re going to give our players a chance to get it right and get it corrected. And this is a small body of work, it’s two games.

But through two games, our guys have done a really nice job in the things that we’ve asked them to do. The challenge is can we do that to consistency regardless of success or adversity, and can we do that on the road? And I think obviously going to Georgia in Athens in two weeks will represent a great challenge for our football team.”

Wommack on how Deontae Lawson is looking so far…

“I’ve been really, really pleased with D-Law. Another guy that I think has continued to step his game up from the first game. I think there’s a level of trust when you come back from an injury that you kind of have to go through a little bit of the fire, and he seems to be playing with great anticipation. He’s playing hard, playing physical right now. And he just gives so much to our players and coaches from an effort standpoint, from a leadership standpoint. His preparation, I think, is elite. And those things are starting to show on the field in terms of production. So I’m pleased with him.”

Wommack on the importance of building momentum heading into Georgia…

“Momentum is a piece of any good football team. But also responding to adversity is a piece of a good football team. And that’s something that we’ve got to be able to show that we can do a better job of, particularly on the road. And I can’t think of a better place than Athens, Georgia, to be able to go show that. So our players are looking forward to the challenge. Coach Smart and his staff do a tremendous job. They just had a tremendous road win where they had to grit through some toughness and adversity and found a way to come up with a win. 

“And ultimately, we’re going to look up at the end of the season and the teams that find a way to grit kind of through and execute when things get hard and things are not always going to go easy, ultimately it’s going to be the tell of the best teams in the SEC and around the country. And so I think we have the makings to do that as a football team. But I think we’re all looking forward to another opportunity to go on the road and show up better than we did in the first one.”

Wommack on his observations of Ty Simpson…

“I’ve been really impressed with the steps that Ty took in the offseason. It’s fun for me to watch him grow as a quarterback. The decision-making, his understanding of what Ryan Grubb and Nick Sheridan are trying to get him to do offensively. And like a lot of players, probably that first week we didn’t execute to the consistency that we were capable of across the board. And to watch him respond the way he has, in particular from the quarterback position the last two weeks, has been really impressive. 

“And ultimately, his ability to do that throughout the season, regardless of success or adversity, right, is going to dictate a lot of who we are as a football team. But certainly really impressed with the grit and toughness that I’ve seen from Ty to kind of buckle down and just hone back in to doing his job at a really high level and the production showing up on the field.”

Wommack on if he has gone back and watched last year’s Georgia game..

“I try to watch games over and over again. I try to watch it with different lenses. So sometimes you’re watching from a schematic standpoint. Sometimes you’re watching from an effort standpoint. You’re watching from a personnel standpoint. And so, you look at the first three games that Georgia’s played, and I’ve already watched those games multiple times just through different lenses. And they’re a good football team. I mean, but one of the most impressive things, and I think it’s a credit to Coach Smart and his staff, they responded really well to adversity. I mean, they got punched in the mouth early on the road in a very hostile environment in Knoxville, and they responded to it and found a way to win the game. And so, those are always impressive things. 

“I think that’s a credit to their players and their coaches. But ultimately, that is what college football is going to come down to, right, is who can win on the road when everybody’s got good football players. And so the disparity between one team to another is not that great. And so it’s ultimately going to come down to how do you handle adversity and the grit and toughness that your teams play with. And I’m excited for us to have a chance to have an opportunity to go do that and show that.”

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