We continue our series of the biggest concerns for each SEC team heading into the 2026 season. Today’s team, the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Being so thin in the trenches
One thing about me is that I hate only three things in life: terrorism, Darius Rucker’s abomination of a Wagon Wheel cover and clichés.
I hate clichés, and there is no cliché used more around SEC football than “games are won and lost in the trenches.” There’s truth in that, though. Games are won and lost in the trenches in this league.
That’s one of the reasons why there should be much more pessimism about this year’s Alabama team than the first two under Kalen DeBoer. The lack of production, experience and talent loss that wasn’t replaced are all very real concerns for this year’s team. And, it’s on the offensive and defensive line too, not just one or the other.
Start with the offense. The offensive line was atrocious at moving people around a season ago. Everyone thought it was cute when Kadyn Proctor caught a screen pass against Georgia. Most people thought the same the following week against Vanderbilt when he lined up in the Wildcat inside the ten yard line on third and short. All that said was they had more faith in converting short yardage, than running behind him at left tackle despite him being a first round draft pick.
Everyone likes to point out the embarrassment in Atlanta when they ran for negative three yards against Georgia. But, the problems were obvious since the start of the season.
Alabama finished last year with its lowest rushing yard per game average in 79 years with 104.1 ypg. They were 125th nationally in rush yards per game and 126th in yards per carry at 3.35. Their yards to contact was horrid, as well. The pass blocking wasn’t much better. The Tide allowed 32 sacks last season which ranked 13th in the conference.
The scariest part of all that is that they did that with multiple draft picks on the 2025 roster. This year they lost four of those five starters. It’s probably reasonable to say, “Well, who cares because the new guys can’t be much worse.”
Are we sure about that? It’s not like they lost four players on a mash unit up front. They lost guys who started for multiple years and one that was drafted No. 12 overall in the NFL Draft.
Then there’s the other side of the ball, which is where the bigger concern may be. Alabama got gutted on the defensive line and EDGE rush positions. They return Yhonzae Pierre, but he’s the only returning player from the front seven a season ago. That means they return basically two starters between the offensive line and front seven. One of those players is Michael Carroll on the offensive line who started only five games last season.
The overhaul they’ll have to have on the defensive line is a ton. That’s another huge issue on top of the fact that they weren’t good a season ago, either.
Alabama’s front allowed over 4 ypc on the ground last year in SEC play. They were routinely gashed. They weren’t much better at rushing the passer for a majority of the year, either. Alabama registered just 2.2 sacks per game and 33 total on the year. That ranked eighth in the SEC. An upgrade from being ranked 14th the previous season.
The design of Kane Wommack’s defense isn’t necessarily built around racking up a ton of sacks. That is something that should be more of a priority though. The defense overall was actually pretty good last season as a whole ranking in the top four of the SEC in both scoring defense and yards allowed.
These defenses are a far cry from the ones in Tuscaloosa even five years ago when Alabama teams ranked top three in sacks in the conference and top 15 nationally. Outside of Pierre, they lost their best pieces, as well. Former five-star, and veteran starter, James Smith went to Ohio State. Qua Russaw followed. The Tide lost nearly 20 sacks of their 33 total from a season ago.
Maybe all of this means far less in reality during the season than I think it does in June. Hopefully, that is the case for Alabama’s sake. But, with all the talk about the standard at Alabama no longer being what it was, one thing is for sure: that standard was never “well, it can’t get worse.” And, that is the biggest concern for Alabama going into the 2026 season.
