The Alabama Crimson Tide is headed into the second season of not just the Kalen DeBoer era, but the Kane Wommack era as well.

After being hired away from his role as head coach at South Alabama, Wommack’s unit struggled heavily in the early portion of his first season. By the end of the year, however, the group was among the nation’s best, and after retaining a ton of last year’s talent, could be a dominant force this season also.

A huge part of that was not losing significant pieces in the transfer portal, something which in today’s day and age is easier said than done.

On Tuesday morning, Wommack joined 105.5 WNSP in Mobile to discuss how he and DeBoer retained their stars, giving all credit to his boss.

“I think Kalen does a tremendous job,” Wommack said. “He’s very proactive, he’s very engaging, he’s very relational with people. Certainly, he understands the business side of this game, but he also keeps the main thing the main thing. We are trying to bring out the best in these young men to maximize their opportunities as individuals and our opportunities as a team. Those things go hand in hand.”

Wommack talked about the perceived need for players to get the most amount of money possible and how the group that has stayed at Alabama runs counter to that.

“People think you either got to go get yours, right? Or you can sacrifice for the team. The truth is, high tides raise all boats,” he said. “For us, keeping that mindset for these players, of course, everybody wants our starters, but they want our [backups] and our [third strings], as well. I think Kalen has done a really tremendous job of managing that to get these guys to buy into this team and how that helps them as individuals.”

With a group that promises to be one of the most talented in the country and appears to be fully bought in, the sky could be the limit for the Crimson Tide defense in 2025.