Wommack Names Younger Defenders Stepping Up

Alabama saw several young defenders make highlight plays on Saturday night, the benefit of playing a team like ULM in week two of the season. Alabama forced three turnovers, and two caused or recovered by players who typically see minimal playing time: Inside linebacker QB Reese and safety Dre Kirkpatrick Jr.

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Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack was asked on Monday during media availability about both Reese and Kirkpatrick Jr., who he said both did a "really good job."

"QB was in on two takeaways defensively, which was great. We've made an emphasis of not just creating takeaways, but trying to score. We had an opportunity to do that, but fell a little bit short there. So I think a tight end chased him down, so we kind of gave him a hard time on that one.
“But I think one of the big emphases in the offseason is creating force fumbles and punching out the ball, and QB did a really nice job of that. That last takeaway that we got, he did a nice job of coming in there and punching the ball out. Those are things that we chart and practice every day.
“He's a guy that continues to do those things in practice, and then it showed up on game day. So you always want to be able to reinforce your messages, right? So when you can show guys, ‘Hey, he did this in practice,’ and then all of a sudden he showed up and he got production on game day. That's a good message.”

Wommack also had good things to say about Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., who forced a fumble on Saturday night.

“I think Dre did some good things at the safety position the other night. He's been doing that all spring. He's been doing that all fall camp. You know, he plays the game with a lot of effort and energy, and some good things happen from that. He created one of our takeaways in the game, just flying around and hitting people."

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.