TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Monday wasn’t pretty for Alabama’s secondary.

Crimson Tide defensive backs have a few things working against them at the moment. For starters, graduate safety Malachi Moore is the only returning member of last year’s starting nickel unit. At the cornerback position, Southern California transfer Domani Jackson is the only player with a college snap to his name.

Even those two are in the same boat with the rest of Alabama’s secondary when it comes to getting used to defensive coordinator Kane Wommack’s Swarm Defense, which calls for defensive backs to read the quarterback’s eyes before making a break on the ball.

The other side of the ball isn’t making life any easier either. Alabama is still in the process of implementing Kalen DeBoer’s new offense. However, the high-powered attack is still pretty potent, even in its infant stages. Pair that with a talented quarterback room and a well-stocked arsenal of weapons, and it can be quite a handful.

Monday, things got messy.

“I ain’t gonna lie, they cooked us Monday,” redshirt freshman Jahlil Hurley said. “All of them. They was just dotting. Dotting receivers, going up making every catch. It was just a whole team effort from the offense that day.”

There were some similar growing pains from the secondary during last week’s scrimmage as well. While the Tide’s defense was able to provide constant pressure throughout the scrimmage, Wommack confirmed Tide Illustrated’s reporting that the offense was able to move the ball well on the ground. Wednesday, the first-year defensive coordinator attributed some of the struggles in run defense to the secondary.

“I didn’t think we did a good enough job leveraging the run,” Wommack told reporters. “Our offense does a really good job of getting hats to the point of attack. They crack-replace and do a lot of different things that force your secondary to be able to come up and fit the run. I thought they did a really nice job of establishing some of the runs the other day.

The pair of lackluster outings didn’t keep Alabama’s defensive backs down for long. After taking Tuesday off, the Tide’s secondary enacted a bit of revenge Wednesday, limiting the offense in a much-improved performance.

“It wasn’t very good for them today,” Hurley said with a smile. “The first 10 periods I don’t think they caught a pass or moved the ball, honestly. I’m gonna give it to the front. They getting back there, they’re forcing them. Even like the DBs, they're holding their positions, so they're not open, so [the quarterbacks] has to hold the ball and take a sack.”

Following practice, Wommack praised his young defensive backs, stating that if they continue to to progress at this rate, the defensive should be in good shape by the season opener on August 31. As for shaking off the mini slump, Hurley said that’s part of the identity the unit has taken on so far this spring.

“It’s just that next play type of mentality,” Hurley said. “It matters, but it really doesn’t because it’s in the past. And that’s something Coach Mo [Linguist] says every day is just like ‘move on from the past,’ especially in this game in the SEC. You cannot be stuck on the last play. That’s really it. Like, just move on. That’s all you can do for real.’”

Alabama will hit the practice field again Friday before holding its second spring scrimmage on Saturday inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. From there, the Tide will practice twice next week before wrapping up its camp on April 13 with its annual A-Day game.

It’s safe to expect Alabama’s young secondary to continue to experience a few highs and lows during that period. However, there’s plenty of optimism surrounding the unit’s potential moving forward.

“They’re hungry. They have an urgency to get things fixed,” Wommack responded. “They have an awareness of what mistake they made and how they need to get it corrected. … At night, there’s a bunch of freshmen in every single coach’s room, getting better, learning, taking every mental rep they can. You see them on the sideline, they’re locked in.

“These guys don’t act like freshmen. They act like guys that want to be great and act like guys that have been there before. That’s really impressive from this group.”