Update: Alabama's Kalen DeBoer Finds Southern Tie - South Alabama Head Coach Kane Wommack Tells Team He Is Tide's New Defensive Coordinator

On Saturday, new Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer admitted he needed some grits in his first Crimson Tide staff after serving as head coach at Fresno State and Washington in the northwest.

On Monday night, that was simmering toward being done. And on Tuesday, South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack told his team he was leaving to become Alabama's defensive coordinator. Alabama is expected to make an official announcement soon.

Wommack was Indiana's defensive coordinator in 2019 when DeBoer was the offensive coordinator, and the two have stayed close ever since. Wommack visited DeBoer in New Orleans before DeBoer and Washington beat Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Sugar Bowl. He sent the below tweet on X.

A former Arkansas fullback and tight end, Wommack, 36, has spent most of his coaching career in the South. He will replace Kevin Steele, who retired last week before head coach Nick Saban announced his retirement on Jan. 10. Secondary coach Travaris Robinson had been coordinating much of the Tide defense since the Tide's 34-24 loss to Texas on Sept. 9. Georgia hired Robinson as a co-defensive coordinator on Friday.

Wommack will likely double his $800,000 a year salary by taking the Alabama job.

"I'll work on getting a staff together very quickly. There'll be a touch of Washington in there," DeBoer said Saturday in his first full day as the Tide's head coach. "But I'm certainly open to and kind of hitting on even maybe what Greg was discussing with you when I showed up here."

Former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer is trying to add southern coaches to his staff in his new job as the Alabama Crimson Tide's coach. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne was in mid-sentence about DeBoer adding southern ties to his staff during breakout interviews with media in Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday after the main press conference. Just then, DeBoer walked in.

Alabama Crimson Tide Tends To Have Southern Coaches

"They're asking about not having ties to the South and how that works," Byrne said to DeBoer as he joined the interviews. "So, I think it's an added bonus if you have that. We talked about it, and I felt very pleased with his ideas on how to make sure he puts the best staff together."

Wommack is a Sprinfield, Missouri, native. That's not really the South, but he played for Houston Nutt at Arkansas in 2005 and '06 and at Southern Mississippi from 2007-09 before coaching throughout the South. He coached quarterbacks at Tennessee-Martin (2010), the defensive line as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Alabama, (2011), and safeties as a GA at Ole Miss (2012-13) for coach Hugh Freeze.

After two seasons at Eastern Illinois as defensive coordinator (2014-15), Wommack flew south to South Alabama in Mobile to be defensive coordinator in 2016 and '17. From 2018-20, he coached at Indiana and was defensive coordinator in 2019 and '20.

South Alabama's Kane Wommack Has Southern Experience

Wommack coordinated the defense in Bloomington again in 2020 before South Alabama named him head coach after the '20 season. He was 5-7 and 2-6 in the Sun Belt with the Jaguars in the 2021 season before a breakthrough 10-3 and 7-1 mark in 2022. South Alabama went 7-6 and 4-4 campaign this past season.

The Jaguars finished No. 15 in the nation in total defense in 2023 with 313.2 yards allowed a game under coordinator Coret Batoon with Wommack coaching more defense than offense.

Washington, on the other hand, finished 96th in total defense in 2023 under co-coordinators Chuck Morrell and William Inge.

"I understand there needs to be some southern ties," DeBoer said Saturday of his new staff. "Some southeast ties that can help bridge the gap of maybe my experiences."

DeBoer is expected to make his Washington offensive coordinator, Ryan Grubb, his Alabama offensive coordinator. The two have coached together for most of the last 16 years at Sioux Falls, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Washington.