Alabama is extremely young in its secondary, especially at cornerback. Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry are off to the NFL, but you also saw several of those “next guys up” leave via the transfer portal. Players such as Trey Amos, Dezz Ricks and Antonio Kite are now going through spring practice with other SEC programs.
Domani Jackson was brought in from USC to fill some of the experience void, but every other guy in that cornerback room is either a redshirt freshman (Jahlil Hurley) or a true freshman. Safety is a slightly different story. Alabama lost its two starting safeties in Caleb Downs (Ohio State) and Jaylen Key (eligibility), but Malachi Moore is making the move from Star to safety and Keon Sabb was brought over from Michigan.
It’s an adjustment period for everyone though. The entire secondary is still adjusting to a new defensive scheme, Moore is having to adjust (at least to some degree) to playing a new position and the two transfers are adjusting to a new environment. Plus, first-year players such as Red Morgan and Zabien Brown are both pushing to contribute in Year 1. It’s going to take some time to get everyone acclimated.
On Wednesday, Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack spoke to the media following practice. The first thing he brought up was the growth he’s already seen from his young defensive backs, and how they’ve gone above and beyond to correct the mistakes they made in the first scrimmage, which was last Thursday.
“In the scrimmage the other day, I didn’t think we did a good enough job leveraging the run,” Wommack told reporters. “Our offense does a really good job of getting hats to the point of attack. They crack-replace and do a lot of different things that force your secondary to be able to come up and fit the run. I thought they did a really nice job of establishing some of the runs the other day.
“I was really pleased with the last two practices of how our guys got those things fixed. And that’s really all you want to see is young defensive backs make a mistake and then they’re able to get it corrected moving forward. If we can continue to do that on this trajectory, we’ll be in a good position by August 31st.”
There was an immediate follow-up question that asked specifically about what he’s seen from those young defensive backs, which includes Morgan, Brown and several other freshman such as Jaylen Mbakwe, Zay Mincey, Peyton Woodyard and Dre Kirkpatrick Jr. Obviously, he’s been pleased with the improvement from last week to this week, but what specifically stood out to him about that growth.
“They’re hungry. They have an urgency to get things fixed,” Wommack responded. “They have an awareness of what mistake they made and how they need to get it corrected. If you walk up in our coach’s offices at night, we all go up and grade the film on our own as coaches, and then in the morning, we’ll come back.
“But at night, there’s a bunch of freshmen in every single coach’s room, getting better, learning, taking every mental rep they can. You see them on the sideline, they’re locked in. These guys don’t act like freshmen. They act like guys that want to be great and act like guys that have been there before. That’s really impressive from this group.”
For Jahlil Hurley, it’s all been about getting the young guys to adopt that “next play” mentality.
“It’s just that next play type of mentality,” Hurley said. “It matters, but it really doesn’t because it’s in the past. And that’s something Coach Mo [Linguist] says every day is just like ‘move on from the past,’ especially in this game in the SEC. You cannot be stuck on the last play. That’s really it. Like, just move on. That’s all you can do for real.’
The talent in the secondary is obvious, especially at corner. In fact, all five players at that position are former top-50 recruits with four of the five once being rated as five-stars coming out of high school. From that standpoint, you’d be hard pressed to find another cornerback room with more natural ability than in Tuscaloosa.
And as for Domani Jackson, the former five-star transfer is already receiving praise for how he’s transitioned to Alabama. Hurley was also asked about his new secondary teammate on Wednesday, and he described the former USC starter as being a “hard worker” with elite athleticism.
“He’s a hard worker,” Hurley said of Jackson. “He’s very fast. Say someone gives him a move out this way, he can turn back this way. He has very fluid hips, and a great work ethic. It’s like anything a DB needs to play here, he has it. [Nick] Saban recruited him, so obviously he has it. So even though all of them left, he showed me why Saban wanted him.”
Whether it be due to numbers or experience, Alabama will more than likely turn to the transfer portal following the spring to find more help in the secondary. But in the meantime, it sounds like the new arrivals are showing a lot as far as their mentality and work ethic. The added reps this spring should be beneficial come the fall, regardless of who else shows up this summer.
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