Alabama Football: 3 keys to defensive success against Wisconsin

The Alabama Football defense underwent fundamental philosophical changes after Nick Saban's retirement. New head coach Kalen DeBoer hired South Alabama head coach Kane Wommack and gave him free reign on the defensive playbook.

Wommack brought with him a completely new style of defense, filled with new positional names and alignments that Tide fans are still getting used to. But change is a lot easier to accept when it comes with success, and early returns on Wommack through two games has been positive.

Alabama pitched a shutout against Western Kentucky in the season opener, and then limited a good USF offense to just 16-points in 17 possessions, holding up frequently in the redzone and keeping the Crimson Tide ahead in a game where the offense sputtered for three and a half quarters.

Saturday will be Alabama's first game against Power-4 competition, but the Tide is currently 5th in the country in yards-per-play defense, giving up just 2.9 yards-per-play. Wisconsin QB Tyler Van Dyke and the rest of the Badgers will be the sternest test so far as the Miami transfer is by far the best pure passer the Tide has seen so far in 2024, and that could be problematic for a secondary that has a lot of freshmen rotating in.

So what does Alabama's defense need to do in order to have success at Camp Randall, and set the Alabama offense up in favorable situations?

3. Force Turnovers

For all intents and purposes, Alabama's defense played well last week. But the lack of forced turnovers prompted Wommack to call the Tide's performance "extremely disappointing." Wommack wants his defense swarming to the ball, ripping it away, and being ball-hawks on the back end in the secondary.

Michigan transfer Keon Sabb picked off two passes in Week 1, but the Tide were shutout in the turnover department against a disciplined Bulls squad in Week 2. With two offensive turnovers and a fumble on a kick-return, Alabama was -3 in the turnover margin, which coupled with penalties caused the game to be a lot closer for a lot longer than it should have been.

You can expect that to have been a major point of emphasis this week in practice, and Alabama will be looking to force Wisconsin into mistakes. Van Dyke is a solid quarterback, but he has been prone to force some throws and make mistakes when rushed. That leads us to point No. 2...

2. Put pressure on Van Dyke

Alabama's defense has had success so far this year despite not creating ton of havoc. Alabama has five sacks in two games, which produced a sack-rate that ranks 54th in the country. Part of that has been both Western Kentucky and USF scheming to get the ball out quickly because they didn't like their chances of holding up in pass-protection for a long period, but some has been the Tide's inability to get pressure without bringing blitzes.

Alabama has not blitzed much in the first two games, instead being content rushing four and dropping back in coverage. My assumption on that is that DeBoer and Wommack wanted to get as many reps as they could for a young secondary in games they weren't really worried about losing.

This should be the week to turn that loose. Expect more exotic blitz looks with pressure coming from all over the place. Van Dyke is too good and will make Alabama pay if he's given enough time in the pocket. He won't miss the same throws Byrum Brown missed a week ago.

But the book on Van Dyke has been his propensity for making mistakes when pressured. He's nowhere near the same level of athlete as Brown, so the Tide won't have to worry about spying him and playing contain. They'll be able to pin their ears back and go to work.

1. Get off the field on third down

Through two weeks, Alabama has been one of the best teams in the country on third-downs defensively. The Tide ranks 6th in the country, allowing opponents to convert just under 14% of third down attempts. Alabama holding USF to 2-18 on third downs a week ago was a big reason for the defensive success.

Two games is obviously too small a sample to pass complete judgement, but early returns have been encouraging. Third downs are the money downs, and what separates a good defense from an elite one is the ability to consistently get off the field on third down. Alabama has done that as well as anyone in the first two games, and if that trend continues it should be able to pull away from Wiscnsin.

Alabama's offense will need some help on Saturday afternoon. Wisconsin will bring exotic blitz packages and has a good enough secondary to make life difficult for Jalen Milroe. It will be up to the defense early on to set the offense up with good field position, and grant them as many possessions as they can by forcing three-and-outs and making the Wisconsin punter get a good workout.

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