Peeling back the support role of Alabama DC Kane Wommack's dad, Dave
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With the respite of an idle date ahead, Kane Wommack boarded the Alabama football team bus following the Crimson Tide’s 29-22 road win at South Carolina with two weeks to prepare for the Alabama-LSU game.
He didn’t take two minutes.
How could he? As he sat down to begin Alabama’s travel home, he was handed a series of notes on the LSU offense that his father, Dave, had prepared for him. That’s one of the roles Wommack’s semi-retired dad performs in support of his son, but far from the only one. He’s on the sideline for games, and he’s even eyeballing Crimson Tide practices live, using an I-Pad, from his home in Oxford, Miss.
As a defensive coordinator at seven different college stops among 38 years of coaching experience, there’s little that his son sees on a Saturday that dad hasn’t. And while this will Kane Wommack’s first trip to the Rose Bowl, Dave Wommack will have another kid − of sorts − making a Rose Bowl debut: his 4-2-5 defensive scheme.
“He created this defense. He’s the originator of what we do defensively in our scheme,” Kane Wommack said Sunday. “So he’s got 38 years of experience tied into what we do. Not just the defensive scheme portion, but what he does such a great job of, is keeping, when we talk, keeping me focused on the main thing. Our fundamentals as a defense, the offensive opponent, who are they trying to get the ball to, what is the focus of their team?”
The focus of the Indiana offense that Wommack will face Thursday in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal (3 p.m. CT, ESPN), despite the presence of Heisman Trophy-winning QB Fernando Mendoza, is a stout rushing attack. Wommack mentioned it more than once on Sunday, suggesting that the Hoosiers efficiency in running the ball − the backfield tandem of Roman Hemby and Kaelon Black has combined for more than 1,700 yards − sets up Mendoza’s passing exploits.
The Wommack defense has been strong against the run over the second half of the season. Since allowing 227 yards on the ground against Georgia in Week 4, UA hasn’t allowed more than 163 in 10 games since. Four of those opponents ran for fewer than 100 yards, including Oklahoma (33 rushes, 55 yards) in Alabama’s CFP-opening win.
Dave, to be sure, has spent plenty of holiday time analyzing the IU attack.
“It just allows me to one-step-ahead with somebody that knows me, knows this defense, understands the bigger picture,” Wommack added. “It kind of clarifies and crystalizes what I’m thinking about from a game-plan standpoint from one week to the next.”
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Peeling back the support role of Alabama DC Kane Wommack’s dad, Dave
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