Going into 2026, Alabama lost a significant amount of their linebacker production. For the off-ball guys, Deontae Lawson, Justin Jefferson, and Nikhai Hill-Green have all graduated. Meanwhile, the Tide also lost part-time starter Qua Russaw from the Wolf position to the transfer portal.
Interestingly, the Tide was really planning on replacing both Lawson and Jefferson a year ago, but both surprisingly got an extra year in Tuscaloosa, pushing back the ferocious position battle by a year. Now, there’s
a whole lot of open playing time up for grabs.
As a quick primer, defensive coordinator Kane Wommack uses three linebacker positions: the middle linebacker, the Sting linebacker, and the Wolf. The middle linebacker is your traditional, well, middle linebacker, that is generally in the center of the formation. The Sting is more like a Will linebacker in old school terms: they tend to play more in the mesh/hook zones and blitz more. Then there’s the wolf, which is a sort of a hybrid of a Sam linebacker and an edge rusher. The Wolf often lines up and rushes the passer, but they also drop into slot coverage pretty often as well, making it a tough position for a player to be good at.
For what it’s worth, there are some overlap between the Wolf and the other two linebackers, as well as overlap between the Wolf and the Bandit on the defensive line. I’m giving it my best guess on dividing between the linebackers and defensive linemen in the last article, but they could always swap around.
As always, all ratings will be from the 247Sports Composite, though I’ll mention if the other services have wildly differing opinions. And in case you missed it, you can go check out all of the previous Meet the New Guys articles here.
Jamarion Matthews
Position: DL
Stars: 4
Hometown: Gainseville, GA
National Rank: 61
Position Rank: 6
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 252
Matthews is interesting. He added some sized and moved from the edge to playing as an interior lineman his senior season of high school – so most expected him to be working towards a Bandit role. And yet, on Alabama’s first roster this spring, Matthews had lost 6 pounds from his high school weight, and is listed as a linebacker, not a defensive lineman.
Matthews was one of the very first people that Kalen DeBoer recruited for Alabama, and he was one of the longest-tenured commits of his class.
Playstyle
Matthews plays with a tremendous level of energy, effort, and aggressiveness. He’s quick off the snap and is going for the QBs blood on every play. As a junior, he mostly lined up as an edge rusher, and despite a shorter, stockier frame, he showed he could win with pure speed rushes as well as making inside counters and spins. He excels at getting across the face of a tackle and knifing in to a QB without even getting touched. He showed a little ability to set the edge in the run game as well, blowing the tackle up and cutting off the outside run.
As a senior, Matthews moved inside and continued to be effective, racking up 11 more sacks. He still showed that same ability to spin out of a block or make a quick swim inside, but he also started to develop his strength as someone that could bull rush a guard a little, then catch the QB on a cleanup sack.
He did struggle some with disengaging from blockers once they got their hands on him, and his size puts him in a little bit of a weird spot where he’s a bit stout for a linebacker (though he’s definitely got the quickness to do it), but probably undersized to be a true defensive lineman.
To this point, we don’t really have any tape of him playing as an off-ball linebacker, so pass coverage and run firs are an unknown part of his game if he’s going to stay at Wolf.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
Long term, I think Matthews fits best as a Wolf, unless he winds up adding more weight – though I think he may be the kind of player who is already about at his max weight. He’s an absolutely excellent edge rusher that needs the chance to make an impact from there, and his time playing inside should help round out his game.
I do think that he’ll need a year to learn to play linebacker before he’s really starting to get into contention to play on defense. However, I also think he may quickly become a special teams staple. On top of being a guy that I think would be an excellent gunner, he also did personal protection on punts in high school, and was also the go-to for two different high schools on taking direct snaps on a fake punt (and turning them into big plays every time).
Zay Hall
Position: LB
Stars: 3
Hometown: Tuscaloosa, AL
National Rank: 1354
Position Rank: 119
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 238
Hall is the local town favorite as a Tuscalooa kid from Hillcrest High School. He committed to Alabama over Virginia Tech as one of the Tide’s early commitments last summer (committing right after getting on campus for a summer camp) and has already added 16 pounds since arriving on campus this spring.
Playstyle
Hall is the kind of player who won’t stand out on a highlight reel for being particularly big, flashy, or explosive. He’s big enough and fast enough, sure, but where he really stands out is his feel for space and positioning on the field, and it makes him a superb zone coverage defender in the pass game and excellent at keeping run plays in front him without missing a tackle. He’s got plenty of experience playing most any linebacker position and even some slot and safety, and he can blitz from the edge or right up the gut. Basically, he can do most anything you’d like a linebacker to do, do it well, and never be liability.
The biggest thing we didn’t see much from him in high school was if he could take on offensive linemen in the run game and how well he could hold up. That’s an unknown.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
I think Hall is absolutely a future middle linebacker. He’s the kind of player that I could see being a 3-4 year reserve player and mainstay on special teams who winds up finally getting a shot and being the “green dot” guy who communicates the plays on defense in his senior year. Sort of like a Jaylen Moody career.
Xavier Griffin
Position: LB
Stars: 5
Hometown: Gainesville, GA
National Rank: 22
Position Rank: 2
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 222
As one of the crown jewels of this recruiting class, Griffin is a superstar that picked Alabama over his pick of schools, including USC, Ohio State, Texas, Georgia, Florida State, and pretty much everyone else with any NIL money to throw around. He’s an upper-tier athlete rumored (not confirmed, that I’ve found) to have a sub 4.5 forty yard dash and 40” vertical jump – just alien level stuff for a linebacker.
Playstyle
Griffin plays at a totally different speed than everyone else on the field, and the contrast is staggering to watch. He swaps fairly evenly between playing on the line as an edge rusher and as an off ball middle linebacker, and where he excels is at knifing into the backfield at light speed to rack up tackles for loss, whether in the run game or as a pass rusher.
As a run defender, he’s best at reading and reacting to the flow of a play and then shooting through the line, and that skill also translates to him being an exceptional QB spy defender. He’ll hang out in the middle of the field for second, the trigger as soon as the ball carrier commits to going anywhere, and, man, the closing speed when he does surprises the offensive players every time.
As a pass rusher, that first step quickness also shows up, often leaving offensive tackles in the dust on a speed rush around the edge, and he can give them a little shoulder shake to get them off balance as well.
The biggest knock on Griffin will be his size. He’s only 220, and that’s going to be a bit small to be an SEC player around the line of scrimmage. Despite that, I saw him take on a pulling guard in the run game and put that guard on his back. And there were a handful of other examples of him standing toe-to-toe with much bigger linemen and shedding them off to make a tackle. So with a little more weight on him, I think that’s a projectable skill.
We also didn’t see much pass coverage from him outside of some middle of field hook zones or QB spy zones, so that’s a fairly unknown part of his game.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
At his current size, I think Griffin would be better as a Sting linebacker than the Wolf. However, if he adds 15-20 more pounds, then I think his block shedding and other worldly speed could make an even bigger impact as an edge rusher. Still, he’s likely going to be doing both roles during his career at Alabama, and I expect Wommack is looking forward to using him in multiple positions.
I think he’ll need one season to really get up to a good playing weight and focus on a position before he really breaks into the starting lineup, but I still think that the coaching staff will find a way to get him some snaps in a minor role this year – even if just as a pass rush specialist. 2027, though? He’ll be starting somewhere, somehow.
Desmond Umeozulu
Position: EDGE
Transfer School: South Carolina
Class: Senior
Stars: 4 (recruit), 3 (transfer)
Hometown: Upper Marlboro, MD
National Rank: 146 (recruit), 476 (transfer)
Position Rank: 22 (recruit), 56 (transfer)
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 253
Dez Zulu, as he’s more often called, hails from the Maryland area that, for some reason, just keeps churning out high level high school recruits. He’s been the backup to All-Star edge rusher Dylan Stewart the last couple of seasons, so his playing time has been limited, though he’s seen a little action in pretty much every game for South Carolina the last three years, lining up mostly as a wide edge rusher similar to Alabama’s Wolf position.
Playstyle
I don’t totally know what South Carolina’s intention was with Zulu, and I think that’s likely a big cause for him making a change for his senior season. The Gamecocks would often line him up at defensive end on rushing downs and have him as a dedicated edge-setter, then sub him out for pass rush plays. And, weirdly enough, they liked to drop him into coverage on short yardage plays. And then the few times he did rush the passer, he always seemed to actually make an impact with a fairly impressive speed rush and a nice use of a hand chop to keep the offensive tackle from blocking him.
In the run game, he generally could hold his own at setting an edge and forcing a running back to the inside. On the other hand, though, when he tried to come inside to make a tackle or take on guard, he often got washed out.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
Kane Wommack has already mentioned that Zulu has flexibility to play both Bandit and Wolf. For my part, I think he’ll wind up playing more of a Bandit role on the line, but that’s with the caveat that I think he’ll be more of a “small bandit” for Alabama’s pass rush packages. I think the coaches will view him as primarily a pass rusher that has SEC experience as an edge setter despite being a little small for that role, as opposed to South Carolina who used him like a big edge linebacker for rushing downs.
Essentially, I think he’ll be a major role player for the Tide this year. He won’t be a starter that’s on the field all game, but he’ll be a steady part of the rotation along the line.
Caleb Woodson
Position: LB
Transfer School: Virginia Tech
Class: Senior
Stars: 3 (recruit), 3 (transfer)
Hometown: Upper Marlboro, MD
National Rank: 146 (recruit), 833 (transfer)
Position Rank: 922 (recruit), 77 (transfer)
Height: 6’3”
Weight: 238
Woodson is a guy that started his career at Virginia Tech as a 6’3” safety and nickel specialist, but just kept growing into a linebacker. As a true freshman, he got quite a bit of playing time as a STAR/nickel player, then became a full starter as a linebacker as a sophomore, putting together a really impressive season that led to him making some All-ACC preseason lists and getting named a team captain going into his junior year. That fell apart when he was arrested for a DWI, suspended, and had his team captain title revoked. He did still wind up playing for the Hokies last year in a part time role, but struggled with injuries and didn’t win his starting job back until Week 9. Despite the obvious talent and history of production, it was clear he needed a change of scenery.
Playstyle
Woodson’s best attribute is his ability to sniff out and blow up wide receiver screens and other horizontal plays. He’s quick to identify them and can really take out some blockers on the perimeter to make a big stop. He’s also highly effective in both zone and man coverage across the middle and is pretty much a wet blanket on any offense hoping to do a lot of damage in the passing game by attacking linebackers.
On the other hand, Woodson really struggles with taking on blockers and can sometimes be a liability in the run game because of it. He’s generally a solid tackler in open space, but he gets so overpowered and neutralized by blockers that he often never gets a shot at making the tackle.
Scheme Fit and Prediction
The Alabama coaching staff is already talking about him as a “captain-like” player, so I fully expect that he’ll be one of the starters for the Tide this year, most likely as the Sting linebacker. That said, I do think that some of his limitations in the run game will lead to him being somewhat of a more rotated starter who plays a lot vs pass heavy teams, but sees a lot less time against run-heavy offenses, similar to Justin Jefferson’s role in 2024.
