In week 1 of the 2025 season, the Alabama Crimson Tide was run over by a Gus Malzahn offense, giving up 31 points in a loss that had Alabama fans ready to fire everyone on the coaching staff. Defensive
Coordinator Wommack caught plenty of flak, as the issues seemed to be carryover issues from losses to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt in 2024.
That stat gave way to major optimism that Wommack would coordinate one of the best defenses in the country in 2025. After one game, that optimism is no more. And in hindsight, the Crimson Tide’s defensive lapses against Vanderbilt and Oklahoma should have been a far bigger warning sign that something wasn’t right.
Wommack’s “Swarm” defense was more akin to a scattering against Florida State. The Seminoles racked up 230 rushing yards as Wommack proved he learned nothing from QB-run heavy teams that took him behind the woodshed a season ago.
Wommack’s defense, on paper, is built on attacking. It’s everyone flying to the ball and playing aggressively. There wasn’t a lick of aggression in action or play-calling by his defense on Saturday afternoon.
He coached timidly, again, and the players followed suit.
Obviously, week 1 overreactions are a thing, but there’s been consistent doubt and pushback #online from Alabama who don’t like his scheme, don’t like that he rotates players, and mostly just don’t like that he’s not pre-2018 Nick Saban.
The results, though, tell something different. In a raw points per game, Alabama’s given up 17.8 this season and 17.4 last season. Both of these are better than every single Alabama squad from 2018-2023. Points per game rarely tell the story, though, as there are games like the one last Saturday where the offense gifted Oklahoma a pick-6 and multiple short fields.
Ignoring the first three games of the season (FSU was a week 1 weird game, then ULM and Wisconsin were terrible offenses that give too much positive influence to the stats) and looking at Alabama’s 7 games of SEC play, the Tide has allowed a touchdown on 18% of their drives, which is the lowest it’s been since the 2020 season.
What makes that number so impressive, though, is just how many of those TDs have come on short fields. 43% of the touchdowns have given up have started with 60 or less yards to go to get the score. Essentially, the Tide has only given up one normal-drive TD per game in SEC play this year – And the last time that happened was against Tennessee nearly a month ago. Oklahoma, LSU, and South Carolina were all totally unable to put together a touchdown drive against the Tide that wasn’t from advantaged field position.
Alabama’s defense has kept them in every single SEC game this year (and arguably won two of them with defensive scores) despite generally rocky offensive performance and low scoring output from the Tide. So, while Wommack’s approach may be different from what Alabama fans have been used to over the years, the results have been excellent, and, honestly the best that Tuscaloosa has seen since Kirby Smart and Jeremy Pruitt were the defensive coordinators.
