How Alabama’s new defense is energized by Kane Wommack.

Kane Wommack is a ball of energy on Alabama’s practice field. The Crimson Tide’s new defensive coordinator is rarely still, movin

g between drills, coaching players up as they come out, offering encouragement on their way back to the line.

It’s a goal for Wommack, who took over leading the UA defense under new head coach Kalen DeBoer, leaving a head coaching post of his own at South Alabama. Before he heads out to practice, Wommack writes a message in his notes to himself: “You set the tone.”

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“If I ask my players to bring energy every single day, I need to bring energy every single day,” Wommack told reporters Wednesday. “Ultimately, my job is to set the standard, cast vision, and then hold everybody accountable to the relentless detail that it takes to accomplish that vision.”

Wommack has a tall order this offseason. After years of a similar system under Nick Saban, Alabama is switching to his “swarm” system.

As he makes the moves, Wommack freely acknowledged how much of Alabama’s standard came directly from Saban over the past 17 years. He explained the swarm defense, noting that his father, Dave Wommack, helped pioneer the 4-2-5, but the scheme has kept evolving along with the times.

He pointed out Saban’s own changes, moving to more packages with an extra defensive back instead of the standard 3-4.

“We do those things, we still get four down looks, but we move in and out with that outside wolf backer into the boundary,” Wommack said. “So really, we’ve kind of evolved more towards coach (Saban) and he’s probably evolved a little bit more towards us. So the learning curve for our players is less than you would think.”

As the install continues early in spring practice, Wommack is going to keeping bringing the fire on the practice field and said he expects to see similarly high energy from his players.

“Our guys and the effort that they bring, the energy that they bring in all those things are palpable,” Wommack said. “They feed off of one another. There’s a momentum that is carried in a football game and those are things that we need to be mindful of as we continue to set the tone for what it’s supposed to look like. I told the guys the responsibility of the swarm D, whether run or pass, of stopping the offense I placed on all 11 shoulders of the defense, right. And so that’s the mentality they have, but it takes a special effort to do those things and I think we’re getting that done.”

There will be plenty of new faces on defense for the Tide this year, but leaders like Deontae Lawson and Malachi Moore are around to ease into the transition. So far, the new pratice energy is earning high marks.

Moore mentioned the fast pace of the new practices.

“We get to do a lot more technique work,” Moore said. “From breaking out in the middle of the field, doing different types of breaks and different types of tackling circuits. I think it’s gonna be good for us.”