One of Alabama’s five-star freshmen received the highest praise you can get from his defensive coordinator, seems completely unfazed by loaded secondary
Alabama’s five-star freshman cornerback is already considered a starter, according to defensive coordinator Kane Wommack.
Alabama is expected to field one of the best and deepest secondaries in college football this season. In fact, it’s probably the best when you take into consideration the talent, experience and, once again, overall depth in that room.
Both of the starting cornerbacks on the perimeter, Domani Jackson and Zabien Brown, are former five-star recruits who are also returning starters. Keon Sabb and Bray Hubbard are widely considered one of the top safety duos, and there’s also a lot more behind all of those guys.
Jackson has been working his way back from an undisclosed injury suffered towards the end of last season, and Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack provided an update on his status while addressing the media on Wednesday following the Crimson Tide’s practice.
“Obviously, Domani’s been kind of coming back from — offseason, he didn’t go through spring. He was very limited in the summertime,” Wommack told reporters. “So we just tried to kind of get him back the right way, and then put him on a pitch count a little bit through fall camp. But he’s handled it well, he’s done a nice job.”
Another guy who has really shored up the depth while providing another starting-caliber option is five-star freshman Dijon Lee. In fact, reports from fall camp have made it clear that the former Mission Viejo (Calif.) standout has been getting plenty of work while playing with Alabama’s first-team defense. Part of that is due to Jackson’s health, but Lee has made the most of his opportunities.
It’s even reached a point where Wommack now considers the first-year cornerback a starter.
“It’s allowed Dijon in the spring, summer and fall camp to get tons of reps, and reps with the ones,” Wommack said. “To me, with two very experienced corners that we have on this roster, we feel like Dijon can go right in, you know what I mean? So credit to him, the way that he’s playing right now, I see him as a starter in our defense. Really impressive.
“That’s two years in a row, right? We’ve had a young freshman that Mo Linguist has done a tremendous job of developing that guy into being a starter-level player for us. And so excited for Dijon, and what that does for our defense.”
Wommack makes a great point. Linguist deserves a ton of credit for his ability to get young players ready for action. Don’t get me wrong, he’s obviously got elite talent to work with, but it’s still a challenging task helping guys transition from the high school level to the very best college football has to offer in the SEC.
You also have to give Lee a lot of credit. We’ve heard great things this offseason in regards to his work ethic and approach. Not only is he one of the most physically gifted cornerbacks in the country, standing 6-foot-4 and weighing 202 pounds, but he’s also a guy who brings it every single day and has a desire to get better.
