Alabama Defensive Staff Worked to Increase Frames of D-Line: 'Mass Kicks Ass'

Kane Wommack says Alabama was around 14th in the SEC the last two season in defensive line size. He's happy with where the unit is now with the addition of players like Devan Thompkins and Terrance Green.

8/5/26 MFB First fall Practice Alabama Defensive Lineman Steve Bolo Mboumoua (25) Alabama Defensive Lineman Edric Hill (94) | UA Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— There is a noticeable difference when you step on the field at an Alabama football game between the size of an average human being and an SEC defensive lineman.

Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack didn't feel like Alabama was big enough up front over the last two seasons with the Crimson Tide. Alabama went and got defensive linemen from the transfer portal like Devan Thompkins (6-5, 300 pounds) from USC, Terrance Green (6-5, 313 pounds) from Oregon or Kedrick Bingley Jones (6-4, 302 pounds.)

The whole team was also put through a rigorous offseason conditioning program with multiple defensive lineman shedding fat and putting on double-digit pounds of lean muscle.

"I think we have improved our physicality up front," Wommack said after Friday's practice. "I think we’ve improved in our consistency as a defensive line unit. And we’ve gotten bigger. The last two years here we’ve been 14th in the SEC in D-line frames up front. I think this year, we’re fourth or fifth. We’ve worked really hard to get ourselves back in a position where we can be a big, physical defensive line.”

Alabama did a study of weight and length of defensive linemen around the SEC and discovered that the Crimson Tide was toward the bottom of the league. It has taken Wommack and his staff a couple years to get the unit where he wanted it.

"Big bodies matter. Mass kicks ass," Wommack said. "When you have big frames that have length and being able to strike people, but also when they’re getting a double team, just sheer mass matters. The truth is, we got moved around some the last two years here."

Alabama now has six defensive linemen weighing in at at 300 pounds or more: Thompkins, Green, Bingley-Jones, sophomore London Simmons, junior Steve Bolo Mbouma and junior Jeremiah Beaman. Twelve of the linemen measure at 6-4 or higher.

As the Crimson Tide prepares for the first season of a nine-game SEC schedule, having that size, physicality and depth up front will be more important than ever.

"We’ve done some good things defensively here," Wommack said. "At times, I think we’ve been really good, but to be a dominant defense, you have to have guys up front that can make a difference."

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