Alabama's insanely quick secondary rebuild has set the Crimson Tide defense up for massive success in 2025 and beyond
What Alabama has done to rebuild its secondary in such a short period of time is nothing short of remarkable.
Alabama's secondary has gone through quite a transformation over the last two years. After losing the greatest college football coach of all time, Nick Saban, who specialized in defensive backs, the Crimson Tide saw a mass exodus of departures from the back half of their defense.
They had already lost both starting cornerbacks in Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry. Those two went on to be top-50 draft picks. To add on, starting safety Jaylen Key had exhausted his final year of eligibility before becoming a seventh-round draft pick to the New York Jets.
That was a lot of talent to replace, but Saban had always done a nice job of accumulating depth and intriguing talent at that position, so there wasn't much reason for concern. Reload, not rebuild, right?
Losing players to the NFL was far from Alabama's only problem though. The transfer portal also took its toll on the Tide secondary, as eight other returning players–and two newly signed freshmen–elected to take their talents elsewhere. For those who don't remember the entire list, let's recap.
- Caleb Downs (Ohio State)
- Trey Amos (Ole Miss)
- Earl Little II (Florida State)
- Kristian Story (Kentucky)
- Dezz Ricks (Texas A&M)
- Jake Pope (Georgia)
- Antonio Kite (Auburn)
- Tony Mitchell (JUCO, Mississippi State)
- Peyton Woodyard (Oregon)
- Jameer Grimsley (Florida)
Despite having just finished his freshman season, Downs was already considered one of the premier safeties in all of college football. He had not only just led Alabama's defense in tackles (107) while adding 3.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions, four pass breakups and a forced fumble, but he'd also played the most snaps (890) amongst the defenders.
Amos had been fantastic as CB3 and was expected to take over as a surefire starter after the losses of Arnold and McKinstry. Plus, you had former five-stars (Ricks) and top-100 talents (Little) who were projected to step into more prominent roles, but chose to leave instead. Story had just chipped in 166 snaps on defense, and the trio of Pope, Kite and Mitchell were all former four-stars with promise.
In total, 11 of Alabama's 15 defensive backs were gone from 2023, and the only significant contributor back was Malachi Moore. That's what you'd call a complete gutting for Kane Wommack in his first season as defensive coordinator. But instead of complaining, the staff went to work.
A trio of five-star signings at cornerback proved useful, as Zabien Brown, Jaylen Mbakwe and Zay Mincey (both at corner and safety) all contributed to varying degrees during their debut seasons. Domani Jackson, Keon Sabb and Dashawn Jones were all strong additions from the transfer portal too with King Mack and Kam Howard providing spot snaps and/or depth.
Despite all of the losses from the season before, Alabama still managed to put a top-20 pass defense on the field this past season. And now, the DB room–and rest of the defense, for that matter–are set up for success in Year 2 under Wommack. In fact, many are expecting the Tide to field one of the best secondaries in the country.
Jackson and Brown are expected to be one of the top cornerback duos in the country, Sabb and Bray Hubbard, who stepped up in place of an injured Sabb over the second half of 2024, hope to make up one of the nation's top safety tandems, and Jones is a physical and underrated Husky option.
Plus, there are depth options.
Mincey is a starting-caliber safety who put up an encouraging performance against Michigan in the bowl game. Dre Kirkpatrick Jr., despite being one of Alabama's lowest-rated signees from the 2024 recruiting cycle, is developing nicely and could be a factor at Husky. And Red Morgan contributed 178 defensive snaps as a true freshman, so don't be surprised if he also helps at either corner or Husky.
I also want you to look at what Alabama has added to its secondary over the past two recruiting cycles (2025 and 2026).
- Dijon Lee (5-star / No. 15 / CB4)
- Chuck McDonald (4-star / No. 57 / CB7)
- Ivan Taylor (4-star / No. 66 / S5)
- Cam Calhoun (4-star / No. 89 TP / CB12)
- Jireh Edwards (5-star / No. 19 / S2) – commit
- Jorden Edmonds (5-star / No. 21 / CB2) – commit
- Zyan Gibson (4-star / No. 76 / CB11) – commit
- Rihyael Kelley (3-star / No. 1029 / S93) – commit
Obviously, Alabama's coaching staff will need to finish strong with the 2026 commitments, but that's three five-stars, six total top-100 guys and a multi-year portal option in Calhoun, who just finished a promising redshirt freshman season for Utah that had him rated as a top-100 portal signee.
The job that this staff has done rebuilding one of the most depleted secondary rooms that I've seen covering college football is nothing short of remarkable. The talent, length, and versatility should help give the Crimson Tide on of the top secondaries in college football for 2025–and well beyond, too.
