Alabama LB Nikhai Hill-Green 'Striving' Every Day to Play at His Highest Level

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— In Alabama football's 20-9 defeat of LSU on Saturday night, the Crimson Tide defense was the prevailing factor. The contributions of linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green, who had five total tackles and a first-quarter forced fumble that he recovered, were preeminent in this effort.

"I thought Nikhai Hill-Green probably played his best game of the season so far," defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said on Monday morning. "He’s just so solid, and so steady, and he knows where his eye progression is supposed to be, where he’s supposed to be from a landmark standpoint."

The Colorado transfer has been a tackling machine. He has 25 of them since Oct. 11. On two occasions, including that day's game at Missouri, he has posted seven tackles during a single contest. All seven that he recorded against South Carolina Oct. 25 were solo stops.

"I don't think anyone's seen my best yet," Hill-Green said Tuesday. "I'm striving for it every day... On the mental side, I'm just playing way more confident. Instead of waiting on plays or letting plays come to me, I'm anticipating them and I'm going to get the play."

As a veteran player, Hill-Green has the level of experience under his belt required to know what it takes to fine-tune that aspect of playing defense. He was named to the All-Big 12 second team with the Buffaloes last season.

"He does all the things right before he has to make the play, so he gives himself the best opportunity to make the play. He’ll tell you. He’s not the fastest guy out there," Wommack said. "But he’s athletic enough, and his elite trait is his ability to diagnose before he has to go make the play, and he’s doing that at an elite level right now."

Hill-Green was not on the Alabama team last season, when Wommack's defensive scheme was instituted within the Crimson Tide program. Even so, he has fit in. He's done more than that as of lately, turning it up several notches since the beginning of SEC play.

"It's a lot of variety, and really, every game is it's own game. We really match up to the teams we play against," Hill-Green said. "We handicap them from what they do good. We take it away."

The next team up is No. 12 Oklahoma on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC). When it comes to pitting Oklahoma's offense against Alabama's defense, the essence of familiarity is there for Wommack, whose South Alabama Jaguars lost the 2022 New Orleans Bowl to first-year Sooners offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and Western Kentucky, where Arbuckle was co-coordinator at the time.

"We got our ass kicked," Wommack said. "I feel like we have faced this offense and this system a number of times over the years... [He] has done a good job in his first year there at Oklahoma."

Between Arbuckle and dual-threat quarterback John Mateer, who has six rushing touchdowns this season, Alabama's defensive unit will have its work cut out for it against a two-loss squad that could be playing for its College Football Playoff life.

"We know what they do good, and we're gonna take it away... We heard about their offensive coordinator," Hill-Green said. "We see what they do. We know what they do and we want to handicap them of it."

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