Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack is looking at the 2026 season through a very specific lens: not just who starts, but who can give him something useful when the depth chart starts to turn.
That’s where one of his favorite movies comes in.
Wommack reached for “Moneyball” while talking about the challenge of building value beyond the obvious names on the field. The Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill film, now 15 years old, followed former Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane as he tried to reshape how players were evaluated in order to keep a low-budget team competitive.
"I loved the movie 'Moneyball,'" Wommack said. "It's one of my favorite movies.
You've got to play a little bit of 'Moneyball,' right? You've got to create value and depth with some really good pieces to a puzzle."
The analogy only goes so far. Alabama is not operating like a small-market club scraping for every edge, even if it isn’t the biggest NIL spender in college football. In baseball terms, the Crimson Tide would land much closer to a second-tier spender such as the Boston Red Sox or San Diego Padres than to the Athletics, who are in Sacramento now and are set to move to Las Vegas by 2028.
Still, the roster-building task is real on defense. Wommack leans on reserves often, which means players have to be ready for clearly defined jobs even if they aren’t built to start yet.
"That always comes down to development, and that's something I think we do an elite job (of) here, from our athletic director all the way down," Wommack added.
He expects to have a clear read on the winners of the various camp battles on defense, along with how snaps will be split among backups, by the end of this week. Alabama’s second fall scrimmage is set for Thursday, and the Crimson Tide opens the season against East Carolina on Sept. 5.
In Other News...
Alabamas Quarterback Battle Is Starting To Tilt One Way
Fall camp has a way of sharpening every quarterback conversation, and Alabamas has started to narrow in a way that matters for the rest of the SEC. Around the country, several major programs are still sorting through open competitions, with Tennessee weighing Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre and schools like Iowa, North Carolina and Florida still without a definitive answer. In Tuscaloosa, the picture is becoming clearer as the Crimson Tide move closer to naming a starter.
Keelon Russell has emerged as the quarterback who appears to be ahead in the race, which gives Alabama a growing sense of direction as the season approaches. Austin Mack remains part of the conversation, but the gap seems to be forming at the right time for a staff trying to settle the position before the games start to count. Another checkpoint is coming soon, and the decision now feels less like a wide-open battle and more like one nearing its final turn. [Read more 🡒]
Alabamas New Offensive Look Has One Huge Advantage This Season
Alabamas offense is leaning into size in a way that should make life easier for Ryan Grubb as the season unfolds. The coordinator has pointed to bigger receivers Derek Meadows and Cederian Morgan as players who can give the passing game a different feel, while also signaling that the Tides tight end room could become a major part of the plan. Kaleb Edwards, Marshall Pritchett, Danny Lewis Jr. and Josh Ford have all been in the mix as camp has gone on, giving the staff more ways to build around matchups rather than force the same look snap after snap.
Grubb has made it clear that the goal is to use personnel in a way that tests defenses and keeps Alabama flexible from down to down. The tight ends have stood out as a bright spot in camp, and the expectation is that their usage will rise as the offense settles in. For a unit looking for reliable answers and a little more strain on opposing coverage, that kind of depth gives the Tide a useful edge before the season even gets rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Alabamas Offensive Line Is Suddenly Fueling Real Buzz At Camp
There is a little more life around Alabamas offensive line this camp after a strong practice caught the attention of Aaron Taylor, the former Notre Dame lineman and Super Bowl champion who watched the group up close. Taylor came away impressed with the way the Tide were moving people in the run game, pointing to cleaner technique and a more forceful approach than he saw before, while also crediting the influence of offensive line coach Klemm.
For Alabama, that kind of outside validation matters because the line has been a central question as the offense tries to establish itself early in the season. Taylors read was that the group looked improved in the core areas that decide whether a team can control games at the line of scrimmage, and he especially noted the progress in run blocking. The question now is how consistently that camp buzz carries over once the real snaps start adding up. [Read more 🡒]