How Kane Wommack is challenging Alabama football defense after first game

Alabama football defensive coordinator Kane Wommack liked plenty of what he saw from his defense against Western Kentucky. It was a shutout after all.

Wommack liked how the defense played dominant up front, the handling of WKU’s tempo offense, affecting the quarterback, battling in the red zone, and more.

But like any coach, Wommack saw areas for improvement for his defenders.

For the most part, he thought Alabama tackled well. But not completely.

“There was a drive where we had a couple of missed tackles on some critical third downs and we’ve got to get those things cleaned up, particularly some vision coverage where our guys did not have their eyes on the quarterback and so their feet weren’t in the ground to drive on the ball once the ball was thrown,” Wommack said.

Wommack also didn’t like how his defense failed to capitalize more on takeaways. He called Keon Sabb’s two first-quarter interceptions a positive, but he wanted more than that.

“I thought we had opportunities to score on defense multiple times and we did not make the most of those opportunities,” Wommack said. “We also had opportunities in the backfield, sacks are great, but sack fumbles are way better to get the ball back for our offense right there on the spot. So those are things that the guys have really been challenged on.”

Wommack said he didn’t think the defense “met the standard of what we are capable of as a defense there.” He wants to see a response from his players on that front.

“In terms of their intentionality to take the ball away, punching, raking at the ball, all those types of things did not show up to the level that I think we’re capable of,” Wommack said. “So we will make that a huge point of emphasis.”

No. 5 Alabama (1-0) will face South Florida (1-0) on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN) at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.