Alabama Right Tackle Wilkin Formby Highlights Areas He Wants To Improve

- Things have changed for Alabama right tackle Wilkin Formby. The redshirt sophomore from Tuscaloosa looks around the Crimson Tide offensive line room and is one of the veterans as he looks to assert himself as a veteran leader for the 2025 season.

Formby's been through a lot already in his three seasons at Alabama, but growing up in the shadow of Bryant-Denny Stadium means no one knows the expectations around the Capstone better than him. He's been open about struggling with negative social media messages after a poor performance last season against South Florida, but the former Northridge Jaguar appeared confident on Wednesday after Alabama's spring practice.

"I think I just had to get some of the nerves out," Formby said. "People don't realize when you're in front of 100,000 people its sometimes a little stressful. So experience helped a lot, becoming confident. If you have a bad game and you mess up, you're at the bottom like you get to keep going forward from there. That was big for me."

Formby rotated with now-departed Elijah Pritchett at right tackle last season, showing promise but needing development in his second season of college football. He's developing confidence by putting in extra work after practice with other veterans to prepare for the upcoming season.

"I think as the season went on I struggled with power rushing and so that's why this spring we've been trying to work on hand fighting and getting good leverage, like Parker Brailsford, I get with him all the time after practice and we just work on anchoring, getting leverage, just because he plays center doesn't mean I can't take tools from him."

The 6-foot-7, 322-pound tackle credited offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic for his growth, saying he meets with him every day to fine-tune technique and form as the Tuscaloosa product looks to solidify the right tackle position in Kalen DeBoer's second season.

"Just getting better with my hand usage in the pass game," Formby said. "Trying to get a little more strain in the run game, working with my pad level, just typical thing that most offensive linemen go through."

Formby's development gives the Crimson Tide four retuning lineman with quality experience in left tackle Kadyn Proctor, Brailsford at center, Jaeden Roberts at right guard and Formby at right tackle making the Alabama offensive line a potential strength for the offense in 2025.

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