The Alabama Crimson Tide is ready to start the third year under Kalen DeBoer this weekend against East Carolina, but while DeBoer and the offense will be under a close microscope, Kane Wommack and the defense also begin year three.

Wommack left the head job at South Alabama to re-join his close friend and former colleague’s staff when DeBoer was first hired at Alabama, and though there have been some flashes of absolute brilliance on his side of the ball, the overall product has not been good enough.

Going into this year, the Tide has rebuilt its defense through the portal. With elite guys from previous classes starting to mature and develop, Wommack loves where the team is at headed into the season.

“We’re in a much better place than we were our first two years, the multiplicity of what we should be able to do, and we’ve alleviated some of our defense just because of how much more fundamentally sound we are,” Wommack said via On3.

Wommack previously made headlines this offseason when he revealed that he had been breaking down film with Nick Saban to get the GOAT’s thoughts on what the defense is doing well and what they need to work on.

“The disguise of what we’re doing and multiplicity of coverage is something that Coach Saban and I talked about,” Wommack said. “We’ve got to find ways on third down to be more multiple and to have more match-style coverage than what we did. But you can only do that when you have guys up front that can generate pass rush. I know (Saban) likes what we do, and we don’t see things completely eye to eye across the board from a coverage standpoint, but we have similarities.”

Collaboration is critical when it comes to figuring things like this out, and Wommack has the advantage of collaborating with one of the best minds in the history of the game.

After showing a ton of improvement from the first year to the second, Tide fans are hopeful that year three in the Wommack system is the campaign where Alabama gets back to having one of the best defenses in college football. With the pieces and coaches in place to do it, it’s an exciting time in Tuscaloosa.