From Indiana to Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – I’s been about six months since former Jags head coach Kane Wommack left the University of South Alabama to accept the defensive coordinator job with the Crimson Tide.

Wommack spent the last three seasons here in Mobile where he led South to their first 10-win season in 2022 as a division one program and their first bowl victory in 2023.

While Wommack was establishing himself as a head coach at South, the call to rejoin his friend on the sidelines at the premier job in college football was too much to pass up.

The relationship between Wommack and new Alabama Head Coach Kalen DeBoer began back in 2019 when the two were coaching at the University of Indiana.

Former Indiana head coach Tom Allen hired Wommack to be the Hoosiers defensive coordinator and told him “Find me the best offensive coordinator out there.”

Of course, it was Kalen DeBoer.

“We vetted a lot of guys out and it was clear that this offensive coordinator from Fresno State was doing a tremendous job and he and I really hit it off from the word ‘go’ and so there was a little back and forth there, in fact, he turned us down once or twice if I remember correctly.”

DeBoer eventually accepted the job.

The two only coached at Indiana together for one season, but they built a bond that has lasted over the years. Now, they are reunited, taking on the biggest college football job in the country. I asked Wommack, what was it about that season at Indiana that solidified their relationship as coaches and friends.

“We’re like-minded individuals in terms of how we see coaching” said Wommack “How we see leading young men and leading a staff, so Kalen and I have really had that connection since day one.”

For Wommack, leaving South Alabama and the Mobile, AL community behind wasn’t easy, but he only would have done it for this job.

The opportunity for two people who always hoped to coach together again is now a reality, and at Alabama no less, the premier college football coaching job.

Wommack is finishing up his move from Mobile this week and will soon officially call Tuscaloosa home, but Mobile is somewhere he’ll always come back to.

“You know Mobile guys are always going to be special to me, that’s just the way I feel about it. This is now my home and will forever probably be my home I’ll probably retire here one day.”

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