Alabama's Freshman Linebackers Are 'Swimming' in Fall Camp

- The Alabama Crimson Tide is loaded across the board defensively as the program enters the 2025 season. The team returns eight starters on the defensive side of the ball, along with numerous backups from the 2024 season, ready to step into larger roles this fall.

The Crimson Tide features veteran leadership at inside linebacker with Deontae Lawson, Justin Jefferson and Nikhai Hill-Green, but behind the trio lies a number of players who haven't played significant time in a college game.

Alabama's immediate backups are sophomore Cayden Jones and redshirt freshman QB Reese, but the program brought in three true freshmen to fill out the depth at the inside linebacker position. Luke Metz, Duke Johnson and Abduall Sanders each enrolled early, giving themselves the best chance to assimilate into the college game, but midway through their first fall camp, it's clear they'll need more time to adjust.

“Swimming, struggling. I mean, in a good way," Kane Wommack said on the young player's progress. "I mean, if you're going to do this at a high level from a linebacker standpoint, you have to embrace the hard times, right? There's just so much we ask those guys to do in terms of running the defense. And so they have to kind of go and press through these things, and it's going to be two steps forward, one step back, and then it's going to be one step forward and two steps back for a little while.

“I told those guys this morning, they just have to keep pushing. And the guys that I think – I've seen a lot of linebackers go through and then play at a very high level. The ones that just know they're going to play each snap like it's the most important play and just focus on each snap. You do it over and over again, and all of a sudden, it just clicks. But it hadn't clicked yet, so they're grinding right now.”

The three freshmen have an excellent opportunity to lean on the veteran leadership in Lawson, Jefferson and Hill-Green as they focus on their future. The Crimson Tide's leader revealed the advice he's given the trio on Wednesday after practice.

"Those guys, it's great to be around those guys every day," Lawson said. "They're coming in, learning everything they can. Obviously, being a freshman, you're going to have mistakes or anything. The biggest thing I try to tell them is just go full speed no matter what. What you tend to do, you tend to tense up and you don't want to mess up so you so you start playing slow and that's not what got you here. Coach will fix all the scheme things, just go around run, and hit. That's what we always say. I definitely see a lot of improvement from those guys, but obviously, they've still got a long way to go."