The 'Legendary' Defense That Kane Wommack Has Used As Inspiration For Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama's defensive performance against Florida State was a frustrating reality check for a unit that looked to be among the nation's best.

The Crimson Tide, who had allowed just one touchdown that wasn't off a turnover through two games, gave up 36 points and more than 450 yards of offense while folding on third downs against the Seminoles. In the wake of the struggles, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack has used a former Alabama team as a source of inspiration.

“We have an opportunity to be a very good defense here this year,” Wommack said. “You look back over the last decade and really the 2015 and ’16 defense are probably the last two truly dominating defenses that we have had here. And the 2015 defense in the first three games gave up 10 points and 17 points, just exactly like we did. And then the 3rd game of the season, they gave up 43 points at home and lost the football game. And what did they do from that point? They responded with a sense of urgency and went on to be one of the best defenses in the country and won a national championship."

That week-three collapse came against Ole Miss, in a game where Rebel quarterback Chad Kelly threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns. From there, the defense, led at the time by Kirby Smart, held all but one of its opponents up until the national championship game under 20 points.

That unit was loaded with future NFL players — Marlon Humphrey, Reggie Ragland, Reuben Foster, A'Shawn Robinson, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Eddie Jackson, and Jonathan Allen among them — and delivered statement performances throughout the season. The players on this year's roster see the parallels and believe they have a similar ceiling.

"We've got all the pieces and all the right guys and all the depth that we need," linebacker Justin Hill said. "We just need everybody to be on the same timing and not somebody slacking off, because that one person slacking off can lose us a game."

Alabama's secondary, which had been viewed as the single strongest position group on the roster, allowed eight completions of 20 yards or more — one of the uglier figures from Saturday's contest. The unit should be too talented for performances like that to be commonplace, but it's clear that a lot has to improve across the board for that extremely high bar to be reached.

"Everything is ahead of us, but we've got to have a sense of urgency to get it fixed," Wommack said. "It starts with me as the coordinator. Our players, we’ve already met with them as coaches, and I met with them again this (Monday) morning.”

Safety Keon Sabb has heard the comparisons to that 2015 group all week, and he doesn't shy away from the word players around the building have used to describe it: "legendary."

"I feel like we understand how we're a really good group, and to hear about the things that they went through during their year was, it was interesting to see how similar it was to our year and our beginning," Sabb said. "So we understand that the sky's the limit for us."

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