Which Players are Standing Out this Spring on Alabama’s Defensive Front

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama is having to replace a lot of its production up front on the defensive line from a year ago with LT Overton and Tim Keenan III off to the NFL and Keon Keeley, James Smith, Qua Russaw and Kelby Collins off to other schools out of the transfer portal.

Because of that, Kalen DeBoer and his staff were able to bring in some help from the portal themselves. Junior running back Daniel Hill has to go up against those guys every day in spring practice, and two of the transfers have been the biggest surprises to him along the defensive front.

“Thompkins from USC,” Hill said. “He’s a really good player. Des from South Carolina. Those two are really great players.”

Devan Thompkins spent three seasons at USC before transferring to Alabama this spring. Last year with the Trojans, he had 31 total tackles, including three sacks and a forced fumble. Desmond Umeozulu played in 36 games over three seasons at South Carolina, recording 30 total tackles with 2.5 for loss. Alabama also added 6-5, 319-pound defensive lineman Terrance Green from Oregon.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about the new transfers up front after the Crimson Tide’s first scrimmage.

“A lot of potential to set the front, let them play ball. Not have to utilize pressures and blitzes all the time to cause chaos in the backfield. The ability to stop the run with the four and, obviously, the linebackers and your support is there to help. So we have certainly a bigger group of guys than what we’ve had in the past. And last year, probably our biggest struggle against the run game was on the edges.

“Our system lends to making sure balls don’t get out there very often in the run game. But even in the last game, you saw people just running right down the middle of our defense. And we wanna be able to mix things up, but we also wanna be able to just play base with the guys and our personnel. I think with those guys you mentioned, they’re gonna allow us to do that. They still got a ways to go, but I like the direction we’re headed.”

While Alabama did lose some key pieces from last year’s front seven, the Crimson Tide does return sacks leader Yhonzae Pierre as well as defensive lineman London Simmons, who played in all 15 games as a true freshman last season. Jeremiah Beaman and Edric Hill are also back for the Tide.

“We’ve got some guys that are dogs,” Alabama safety Keon Sabb said of the Crimson Tide’s defensive front. “At Bama, you want guys that really compete, and I feel like through the transfer portal and the younger guys, I think we found that.”

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