All in the Family – Kane Wommack Very Much His Father’s Son

By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Dad is here at Indiana's football practice fields, watching, playing with his grandson, thinking about fishing, analyzing how he can help his son develop a rock-your-world Hoosier defense.

Dave Wommack spent most of his adult life coaching football, defense primarily, a man on a mission to turn college offenses into rubble.

He succeeded more than most, running defenses at Georgia Tech and Mississippi, among others in a 30-plus-year career. Retired now, he's been summoned from his Mississippi home to Bloomington to flex his coaching muscles for a Cream & Crimson cause, imparting wisdom his son, Kane, hopes to use to elevate IU into a Top-25 unit.

This is fine with head coach Tom Allen, who was the linebackers coach under the elder Wommack from 2012-14.

"He has been doing a lot of fishing lately, so he may not be as sharp as he was before," Allen says with a laugh. "We have him here to watch us practice, but we had to get him up early. He had an early staff meeting that he wasn't used to being up for this time of year."

Early or not, Wommack's insight could prove invaluable. Allen describes it as offering "Quality control thoughts on what we can do to get better."

"(Once you are a coach), you don't ever lose it," Allen adds. "My dad (also Tom Allen, a retired long-time Indiana high school football coach) is the same way. He's 82 and is always telling me a thing or two that I need to work on."

Kane Wommack seeks "a full analysis of where he thinks we are from a personnel standpoint and just where we are schematically" from his father.

At 32 years old, Kane Wommack is the youngest Power 5 defensive coordinators, and if he went against his father's advice to stay away from coaching (too many hours, too little job security), well, let's just say the younger Wommack makes good money to do what he loves.

"As coaches, our responsibility is to inspire the actions of our players, and I think we've done that," he says.

"We want to create an environment where unique individuals care more about the success of others than they do themselves. When you do that, we all accomplish our goals both individually and collectively. I think we're well on our way to doing those things."

Once Kane Wommack fully committed to college coaching, his father brought him to Mississippi to serve as a 25-year-old graduate assistant with assistant-coach responsibilities. In this case, it was overseeing the hybrid linebacker position called Husky.

"He always treated (graduate assistants) like full-time coaches," Kane says. "So my last year at Ole Miss, I got to coach a position; I was like a full-time guy; I got to game plan. I was heard."

"While Kane Wommack is his own man with his own defensive ideas, the similarities between his approach and that of his father are obvious," Allen says.

"(Kane) is such a detailed guy (like his father). The way he scripts everything and the way he thinks and the organizational part of it. A big piece in defense is having a great plan. Even the way that they talk -- I think they have a lot of the same mannerisms, too.

"They are high-quality people that care about their players and love what they do and they're passionate about what they've been called to do."

One of Kane Wommack's biggest callings this season is to develop defensive line depth. He expects a lot of guys will play, youth be darned, as long as they show they can handle the responsibility.

"We're going to play by committee for sure," Wommack says. "The nice thing now is some of these young guys have taken their game to another level. It's really encouraging to see.

"There's a difference between third-down pass rush and first- and second-down transition pass rush, where we have to think run first and then transition to getting in to the backfield, from a run mentality to a pass mentality. That has been really encouraging, just the urgency that those guys can transition from one to flip their hips and go attack the quarterback."

Wommack's 4-2-5 defensive scheme also demands a lot from the linebackers. That group is led by Reakwon Jones, Cam Jones and Thomas Allen.

"Reakwon's play has continued to get better and better," Kane Wommack says. "He is executing at a very high level, but where you've seen a transformation, from really anything I've seen in the past from him, is his leadership. His vocal leadership on the field.

"When you had (former IU linebacker All-American) Tegray Scales and guys like that in the past, that was not required of him. He just had to do his job. Now he's doing it (verbal leadership) at a very high level, where he feels confident about those things. I think he sees that growth within himself and he sees that growth in the younger players, so he's trying to help them along."

As far as Cam Jones and Thomas Allen (the son of the head coach), Wommack says, "Cam's athleticism shows wherever he's out on the field. Make no bones about it, he's a great football player, a great athlete. It's our job to make sure we get him in the right matchups to maximize his full skill set.

"Thomas is the guy who can do everything right. He's a great communicator on the field. He's not as talented as Cam Jones, but he makes plays in a very different way. He's a great communicator. He knows exactly where to go and put his eyes."

Last season as a redshirt freshman, Thomas Allen had 28 tackles, two passes defended and a 30-yard interception return.

Cam Jones had 20 tackles, one interception, one pass breakup, one pass defended and recovered two fumbles.

Reakwon Jones had 36 tackles, 4.5 for loss, 3.5 sacks.

Wommack expects more from these three, and the rest of a talented linebacker group.

"Where you have a great linebacking corps," Wommack says, "is when you have different types of playmakers and guys who study the defense. We've got a nice blend of guys right now."

As far as what's impressed him about the linebackers, Reakwon Jones says, "Just the overall depth and athleticism. They've come out to play, ready to get better every day.

"We might make mistakes one day, but they've corrected those the very next day at practice. Just the attention to detail, listening to Coach Wommack, listening to what he's stressing and fixing it. That's really encouraging.

"We have a lot of athletes who can make plays. It's been competitive and everyone brings it every day. That's been encouraging to see."

So is the communication, Cam Jones adds.

"Playing for this defense, a swarm D, communication and confidence is big. We emphasize that. We emphasize it every day. Practice, walk-throughs, no matter what. As long as you communicate and are confident in what you do, we are going to get to the ball and execute."

All in the Family – Kane Wommack Very Much His Father’s Son

Players Mentioned

Thomas Allen

Cam Jones

Reakwon Jones

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