Kane Wommack loves energy Alabama linebacker brings to defense

Alabama football’s linebacker, Justin Jefferson has been among the most impactful players on the Crimson Tide’s defense this season.

Jefferson has 35 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one interception and one forced fumble on the season. The JUCO product had his best game of the season against Vanderbilt on Saturday. He finished the game with 14 total tackles, one sack and one forced fumble.

Alabama’s defensive coordinator Kane Wommack highlighted Jefferson on Monday.

“Justin has a great feel for just instinctive tracking,” Wommack told reporters. “He can track the ball really well. He’s a very physical player. He is a very fast player. He can create. He can take space away from ball carriers. We work creating takeaways every single practice at the beginning of practice. And that exact, I mean, you talk about a textbook. You show exactly what he did in practice that week and exactly what showed up on game day of stripping that ball loose. We do that over and over and over again. And it’s just so rewarding for those players to be able to show that it showed up on gameday, right, in a very critical moment. So very proud of him and the effort that he’s bringing and the energy he’s bringing to our defense and I think he’ll continue to build off of those things.”

It was unclear if Jefferson was going to be able to return to Alabama this season in 2024. He received an extra year of eligibility thanks to Diego Pavia suing the NCAA. Wommack reflected back on that moment while praising Jefferson.

“That was a special moment,” Wommack said. “I remember calling Chuck Morrell at that time, and that was big, because we were looking for linebackers out of the portal. In fact, I think it was December. But certainly we were all excited, and I got a chance to call him and let him know that he was going to get to come back for another year because you knew he was going to affect, you know, have a great impact on our defense this season. Saturday was a great example of that.”

Alabama football’s defensive back, Bray Hubbard enjoys playing with Jefferson and is impressed with what he sees from the explosive linebacker.

“He flies around, and the dude’s fast,” Hubbard said. “You saw it on the sack he made. He was kind of opposite of the play, think he blitz. I don’t even remember the play, honestly. I just saw him sack the quarterback. The dudand roll, it’s impressive, honestly.”

Jefferson will look to continue to be impactful for the Tide as the season progresses.