In Alabama football's 27-24 win against Missouri , a production decline for Domani Jackson saw the emergence of Dijon Lee .
Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack expanded on the decision to give more reps to the freshman cornerback over Jackson, a senior who transferred from USC ahead of the 2024 season.
Lee saw 49 snaps against Missouri. Nearly twice the number of snaps that Jackson took.
According to Wommack, the discrepancy came down to a "body of work."
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"You have to answer for the things that we put on tape, and we just felt like what Dijon was doing in the game and as the game was going on, he was operating at a very efficient level. What you do in practice and what you do in games ultimately determines the amount of playing time moving forward, so Dijon is certainly in a very good trajectory right now," Wommack said.
As seconds ticked down on the clock, Lee left an exclamation mark on his Saturday performance with a game-sealing interception.
"It was a zone-style coverage, a vision-based coverage that we ran. We tried to mix man and zone against them as well. Their quarterback did a decent job of getting the ball out," Wommack said.
Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula converted a fourth-and-8 and a third down against the pressure of Alabama 's defense earlier in the game, but Wommack felt like if the Crimson Tide could press Pribula enough to speed up his tempo, that he might force a ball.
"They had gone to that concept earlier in the game, and he was looking for it, didn't have it, came back to it again," Wommack said. "But our guys did a really nice job. Our underneath zone defenders are doing a really good job of taking some of the sight line of the quarterback and forcing him to put air on the ball and that's exactly what happened. We say all the time, tip balls or pick balls, tips and overthrows, got to get those."
Lee complemented his pick with a tackle and a pass breakup while Jackson made a lone tackle.
Despite the Missouri outing, Wommack hasn't given up on Jackson. He just wants to see more consistency.
"Domani has done great things here and played good football, but doing it at a very consistent level, play in and play out, and doing your job is ultimately what we're all measured by," Wommack said.
When Alabama's coordinators are doing the work schematically and players are executing what's asked of them, from "effort" to "finish," Wommack said, there's an expectation of accountability across the board.
On Missouri's opening drive, Jackson was over the top on a pass from Pribula and drifted out of bounds, opening up a lane to the end zone for the Tigers' tight end. Later on, Jackson got lost on an underthrown deep ball, which led to an explosive play for Missouri and further criticism from Alabama fans.
"I'm accountable for those things. Our players, doing their job when we put you in position to go make plays, you've got to do those things at a consistent level, and that's something that, not just Domani, a number of our players have to continue to improve if we want to get to where we want to go at the end of the season," Wommack said.
Alabama football will return to action with a 6:30 p.m. kick off Saturday, Oct. 18 against Tennessee in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ABC.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Consistency key in Alabama's choice to play Dijon Lee over Jackson
