Busted coverages have been a common issue for Alabama football this season. Far too many times, opposing receivers have run uncovered past the Crimson Tide secondary.
It hasn’t always resulted in touchdowns, including during Saturday’s loss to Tennessee, when Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava missed on a few deep shots, but it remains concerning for UA going forward. On Monday, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack described how the team goes about defending long passes.
“For us making sure that you have layers to what you’re doing defensively,” Wommack said. “You want to make sure that you’re staying on top of routes. There’s times where you’re going to challenge routes in the first 10 yards, so there’s different ways of being able to defend the deep ball.
“So sometimes you want to stay on top of the route. Sometimes you want to defend it where you’re challenging things in the first 10 yards. And even though you may be step for a step with a guy, or whatever it may be, you’ve disrupted the timing of the route to eliminate some of the deep threats as well.”
The Crimson Tide faces a Missouri team Saturday with serious big-play potential. Wide receivers Luther Burden III and Theo Wease haven’t replicated their performances from 2023 so far this year, but the Tigers are always a play away from making opponents pay over the top.
Alabama will also have a depleted secondary. Safety Keon Sabb is out with what Kalen DeBoer called a “lower-extremity” injury, so the Tide will be relying on some of its younger players in the game, like Bray Hubbard, King Mack and Red Morgan.
“You can point to this and say, hey, this is why it’s so critical that you have the same level of urgency as the guy that may be going out with the starting defense, because at any given moment, you’re going to come in and have a tremendous impact on the game, one way or another, whether you’re prepared for it or not,” Wommack said. ” Certainly, I think our young guys, they seem to do that in practice.”
Mack was in the game late against Tennessee, and was beat over the top on the Volunteers’ winning touchdown, and Hubbard was also beaten,. Still, Wommack seemed to have faith in the youngsters.
“Thought Bray really did some great things in the game,” Wommack said. “Obviously had a huge third-down stop when we needed to get a three-and-out in that scenario and get the ball back to our offense. He made a hell of a play. I thought he did some really good things in the game.
“King was asked to do a tough deal. He played multiple positions, both our field safety and our nickel, the Husky position, and I thought he battled his tail off and made some plays. Ultimately, I know he would’ve loved to have had that last touchdown back.”
Alabama and Missouri are scheduled to face off at 2:45 p.m. CT Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be aired on ABC.
