| FTBL Kane Wommack sucks

I resemble that remark :).

Man, I try my best to soften any possible incoming blows around here when I can... and there are occasions when I probably don't do it enough... and other occasions when I mistakenly buy too much sunshine stock. To a fault at times, I'm more of a big picture person and not someone who bases much (in terms of serious content) on emotional reactions. That is something I try to be very self aware with, really on this board and in life in general. I'm a firm believer that things are rarely ever as good or as bad as they seem, in sport or in life.

The play of this defense the last 6 quarters though has made me take a step back. People with deep and respectable backgrounds at the college and/or pro level of football that I spoke with in the off season re: Wommack were very complimentary of his abilities, including a scout that attended a couple of his games at South last season. The 2nd half of the UGA game aside, what I witnessed at Vandy just doesn't match up well with the things I was told and the expectations some (including myself) had of what this defense would be. However, I feel it should also be pointed out that not everything that went wrong fell into the bucket of "scheme". Yes, that was a big part of it... but there was some effort and fundamental issues that added to the system failure. And personally, while I continue to have questions on a couple of the coaches on that side of the ball, I still feel good about the quality of the staff on the backend of it. I still have faith that some things can get ironed out enough to make the defense better. We saw the potential early against UGA when Bama was focused, changed looks, brought pressure, etc. It's also helpful IMO that Bama won't face another offense quite like Vandy in terms of a unit that wants to drain clock and be happy getting (and able to get) 4 yards a play for 4 quarters while chewing clock along with yardage. Other teams will be more talented, but that's not their makeup. The Vols for example are not going to run the play clock down to 4 seconds every snap.

Also, there's the possibility that it was just one of those shitty weeks. We saw it at times under Saban too. All other teams have them at some point, some, much more than others... A game where the players and staff went in unfocused and by the time they realized they were taking on water, it was too late. The fact that this was DeBoer's 5th game at UA, and it was on the heels of beating UGA, and it was Vandy (a team I warned last week wasn't the, same ol' Vandy) just magnified it and made it all worse. Whether it was a harbinger of things to come, or an anomaly of sorts, I feel pretty certain that the next 2 weeks (the South Carolina and Tennessee games) will anwer a lot of questions.
 
Man, I try my best to soften any possible incoming blows around here when I can... and there are occasions when I probably don't do it enough... and other occasions when I mistakenly buy too much sunshine stock. To a fault at times, I'm more of a big picture person and not someone who bases much (in terms of serious content) on emotional reactions. That is something I try to be very self aware with, really on this board and in life in general. I'm a firm believer that things are rarely ever as good or as bad as they seem, in sport or in life.

The play of this defense the last 6 quarters though has made me take a step back. People with deep and respectable backgrounds at the college and/or pro level of football that I spoke with in the off season re: Wommack were very complimentary of his abilities, including a scout that attended a couple of his games at South last season. The 2nd half of the UGA game aside, what I witnessed at Vandy just doesn't match up well with the things I was told and the expectations some (including myself) had of what this defense would be. However, I feel it should also be pointed out that not everything that went wrong fell into the bucket of "scheme". Yes, that was a big part of it... but there was some effort and fundamental issues that added to the system failure. And personally, while I continue to have questions on a couple of the coaches on that side of the ball, I still feel good about the quality of the staff on the backend of it. I still have faith that some things can get ironed out enough to make the defense better. We saw the potential early against UGA when Bama was focused, changed looks, brought pressure, etc. It's also helpful IMO that Bama won't face another offense quite like Vandy in terms of a unit that wants to drain clock and be happy getting (and able to get) 4 yards a play for 4 quarters while chewing clock along with yardage. Other teams will be more talented, but that's not their makeup. The Vols for example are not going to run the play clock down to 4 seconds every snap.

Also, there's the possibility that it was just one of those shitty weeks. We saw it at times under Saban too. All other teams have them at some point, some, much more than others... A game where the players and staff went in unfocused and by the time they realized they were taking on water, it was too late. The fact that this was DeBoer's 5th game at UA, and it was on the heels of beating UGA, and it was Vandy (a team I warned last week wasn't the, same ol' Vandy) just magnified it and made it all worse. Whether it was a harbinger of things to come, or an anomaly of sorts, I feel pretty certain that the next 2 weeks (the South Carolina and Tennessee games) will anwer a lot of questions.
From what I have seen of the D in 3 out of 5 games is not favorable. USF (200 yards rushing), UGA 2nd half and Vandy. All of this is just unacceptable. I keep an eye on the rush D because I think that is a litmus test for how dominant a D is or can be. When you give up 100+ yards you are generally not controlling the game. Maybe that 100+ should be a little higher but you get my point.

You did caution that we might get frustrated with Womacks defense in that at times it might not get off the field and I took note of that but in my wildest dream I did not think it would be this bad.
 
Man, I try my best to soften any possible incoming blows around here when I can... and there are occasions when I probably don't do it enough... and other occasions when I mistakenly buy too much sunshine stock. To a fault at times, I'm more of a big picture person and not someone who bases much (in terms of serious content) on emotional reactions. That is something I try to be very self aware with, really on this board and in life in general. I'm a firm believer that things are rarely ever as good or as bad as they seem, in sport or in life.

The play of this defense the last 6 quarters though has made me take a step back. People with deep and respectable backgrounds at the college and/or pro level of football that I spoke with in the off season re: Wommack were very complimentary of his abilities, including a scout that attended a couple of his games at South last season. The 2nd half of the UGA game aside, what I witnessed at Vandy just doesn't match up well with the things I was told and the expectations some (including myself) had of what this defense would be. However, I feel it should also be pointed out that not everything that went wrong fell into the bucket of "scheme". Yes, that was a big part of it... but there was some effort and fundamental issues that added to the system failure. And personally, while I continue to have questions on a couple of the coaches on that side of the ball, I still feel good about the quality of the staff on the backend of it. I still have faith that some things can get ironed out enough to make the defense better. We saw the potential early against UGA when Bama was focused, changed looks, brought pressure, etc. It's also helpful IMO that Bama won't face another offense quite like Vandy in terms of a unit that wants to drain clock and be happy getting (and able to get) 4 yards a play for 4 quarters while chewing clock along with yardage. Other teams will be more talented, but that's not their makeup. The Vols for example are not going to run the play clock down to 4 seconds every snap.

Also, there's the possibility that it was just one of those shitty weeks. We saw it at times under Saban too. All other teams have them at some point, some, much more than others... A game where the players and staff went in unfocused and by the time they realized they were taking on water, it was too late. The fact that this was DeBoer's 5th game at UA, and it was on the heels of beating UGA, and it was Vandy (a team I warned last week wasn't the, same ol' Vandy) just magnified it and made it all worse. Whether it was a harbinger of things to come, or an anomaly of sorts, I feel pretty certain that the next 2 weeks (the South Carolina and Tennessee games) will anwer a lot of questions.
I know some folks in the south athletic department, they warned me that this was coming. I am no alabama insider at all but have family at South. They were seriously happy that he left. I can't see him being the long term solution after I watched some film i was sent. Vandy OC saw exactly what they had seen.
 
From what I have seen of the D in 3 out of 5 games is not favorable. USF (200 yards rushing), UGA 2nd half and Vandy. All of this is just unacceptable. I keep an eye on the rush D because I think that is a litmus test for how dominant a D is or can be. When you give up 100+ yards you are generally not controlling the game. Maybe that 100+ should be a little higher but you get my point.

You did caution that we might get frustrated with Womacks defense in that at times it might not get off the field and I took note of that but in my wildest dream I did not think it would be this bad.

Well, nor did I, in terms of the last 6 quarters, but especially against Vandy.

On the rushing, the Vandy game wasn't terrible... not great by any means, but not terrible... they got 3.1 yards per rush on 54 attempts. That would be good enough for 5th best in rush defense in the SEC overall. It should have been better though, which goes along with your point. Some shoddy tackling was one of the things that hurt. The killer, IMO, were the 2 shovel passes that really didn't count as runs, but sure felt like it. Both of those were daggers that Bama just can't afford.
 
I know some folks in the south athletic department, they warned me that this was coming. I am no alabama insider at all but have family at South. They were seriously happy that he left. I can't see him being the long term solution after I watched some film i was sent. Vandy OC saw exactly what they had seen.

Maybe not... we'll see. I just think some fans are making some iron clad judgements maybe a bit too soon on Wommack. I've been around here long enough to see fans fuss about literally every single DC we've had since the inception of this message board... many times, wishing them away... and that includes Kirby. I don't recall ton of negativity around Pruitt here, but it was out there elsewhere on social media and radio for example. Just this week I've seen at least one post around here longing for Golding, a guy that when he left, I went on record saying was a top power 5 coordinator, not some bum with a headset that many assumed.
 
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