A look at how Alabama can handle the Husky position

For a third straight year, Alabama didn’t dole out a depth chart entering game week for its season opener. While it would have been helpful to see how the Crimson Tide plans on lining up this fall, most of the lingering position battles have already been sorted out throughout camp. 

Ty Simpson will make his first career start at quarterback against Florida State. Kam Dewberry will take Tyler Booker’s old role at left guard, while Geno VanDeMark fills in for injured Jaeden Roberts on the other side of center Paker Brailsford. 

On special teams, Colorado Mines transfer Blake Doud appears to have held off true freshman Alex Asparuhov, while redshirt freshman kicker Connor Talty has shaken off his preseason struggles. 

That leaves the Husky position as Alabama’s main mystery heading into Saturday’s opener against Florida State. 

Redshirt senior DaShawn Jones is the projected starter in the slot, but that role might not be locked down completely just yet. 

Following Alabama’s second scrimmage, sophomore Zabien Brown was seen manning the Husky role, while senior Domani Jackson and true freshman Dijon Lee Jr. occupied the two first-team cornerback spots. Meanwhile, sophomore Dre Kirkpatrick showed plenty of promise at Husky this spring, and Utah transfer Cam Calhoun has been cross-training in the slot as well as on the perimeter. 

With Keon Sabb and Bray Hubbard locking down the two deep safety roles, the above six defensive backs will compete for the remaining three starting roles.

That leaves some tough decisions for defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, who will look to get as much talent onto the field while filling out his first-team secondary. 

“That’s the thing I ask myself all the time, because on one end, you wanna create as much depth as you can, and you also wanna get the right people on the field at the right time,” Wommack said last week. “And so whether it be situationally, getting the right personnel on the field, being mindful of how the offense operates, are they gonna go tempo, are they gonna allow you to sub and get the right people on the field? So maybe you gotta be able to do that in a more creative way on first and second down, but ultimately, I think the job is to