TAMPA, Fla. — Kane Wommack brought his child-like holiday spirit with him to Tampa, Florida.
The Alabama football defensive coordinator couldn't help it, especially with four members of his 2025 recruiting class already indoctrinated into the team and helping the Crimson Tide prepares for Tuesday's meeting with Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl .
"It's like I told our coaches the other day, 'This is the closest thing I've felt to Christmas morning as a kid, to have new toys out there on the field to play with,'" Wommack said.
Linebackers Luke Metz , Darrell "Duke" Johnson and Justin Hill , and safety Ivan Taylor are each in Tampa with Alabama practicing ahead of their official starts with the program in the spring, along with tight end Marshall Pritchett.
And none of the players, Wommack said, are solely bystanders.
"I mean we go right in, and they're taking snaps day one," Wommack said. "And then they're going to the scout team and they're taking snaps as well."
Metz, Johnson, Taylor and Hill did not go into ReliaQuest Bowl practices "cold turkey," in the words of Wommack. Each had an idea of what Alabama's scheme looked like with coaches installing plays ahead of each player's arrival during the season in the summer and even during last offseason.
To Wommack, those four players are exactly what he was looking for from a defensive recruit: athletic weapons who "look good in space, move well and can run."
But unlike five-star cornerback Dijon Lee , four-star cornerback Chuck McDonald, four-star linebacker Abduall Sanders Jr. or three-star defensive lineman London Simmons — the Alabama high school signees making the jump to the college level — the transition starts now for Hill, Johnson, Metz and Taylor.
And that transition, Wommack said, is not an easy one. But those four Alabama defensive signees will be one step ahead come spring.
"All of them are wide-eyed," Wommack said. "That's part of it, right? I don't care where you go. There's some guys that are more ready for college than others, just based off of the scheme they ran in high school, maybe the level of competition that they played. But there's not one guy that walks in with Jihaad Campbell , right? Or, you know, Domani Jackson or Tim Keenan and thinks 'Oh, I know what football is supposed to look like.' They're all taking those steps and learning."
Alabama will take on Michigan in the 2024 ReliaQuest Bowl at 11 a.m. CT Tuesday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: What ReliaQuest Bowl practices are like for Alabama football 2025 class
