On multiple occasions, Alabama football defensive backs let South Florida receivers get behind them this past Saturday.
The Bulls looked to launch deep passes to the receivers in each of these first-quarter snaps, but USF failed to connect on all of them. It wasn’t for a lack of receivers being open, though. Each time, the Bulls created separation.
USF quarterback Byrum Brown just couldn’t find a way to hit his open receivers.
Had the Bulls connected on one or two of them, they could have easily taken a lead over the Crimson Tide late in the first quarter. Of course, it’s tricky to play the “what if” game. So we won’t go any farther than that. But the defensive backs allowing receivers to get behind them wasn’t a good thing by any means. The cost was just low.
None of the issues in coverage of these deep passing plays resulted in a big play, and after a one-possession game for most of the night, Alabama finished strong in the fourth quarter. The Crimson Tide beat South Florida 42-16.
Still, it’s worth taking a closer look at what allowed USF receivers to get behind Alabama ‘s secondary.
On Monday, Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kane Wommack explained what happened on two of the plays where receivers ran past defensive backs.
The first play
Freshman Red Morgan was in coverage for the first deep pass of the game in which Brown overthrew receiver Michael Brown-Stephens.
Wommack said it was a technique error.
“We were denying the outside release,” Wommack said. “We forced him to release inside, which is probably the only reason they didn’t connect on that ball. We went back and looked at this a long time ago, if you look at inside release fade balls, the ones that we forced the receiver to release inside versus if he gets the outside release on you, the completion percentage is far less on an inside release. So that was probably the only thing that saved us. However, we put our eyes back in the backfield when we did get beat back inside instead of staying on top shoulder.”
The second play
Freshman Zabien Brown was in coverage for another deep throw attempt at Brown-Stephens a few minutes later.
“They were going fast three plays in a row,” Wommack said. “You’ve seen it at, Oklahoma State was probably the team that was most famous for it, but back before they would, when a guy would substitute, now we give the defense a chance to sub where back in the day we didn’t use to do that, so guys would run the next wide receiver out, the next wide receiver out. And that’s what they tried to do.”
Wommack said Alabama had a substitution issue where the Crimson Tide didn’t feel like it had time to get somebody else out there; Brown was fresh off a play where he had run down the field with a receiver for a while for a previous incomplete pass. Then Brown had to run back to cover another receiver, and fast.
“He was kind of in limbo,” Wommack said. “He wasn’t in press coverage, he wasn’t in off coverage and he just got run by because his eyes were in a bad spot.”
In conclusion
After breaking down the plays, Wommack wrapped up his answer.
“So those are things that young players have to learn,” Wommack said. “They have to get corrected moving forward and so that’s really going to be the key, is making sure that those young guys learn from those mistakes.”
Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.
