How Many Alabama Running Backs Will See Action This Fall?

- The Alabama football program left Tuesdays practice field with just 15 more fall camp practices remaining until the Crimson Tide's first game week begins. Alabama's primary focus has been settling who will start under center as the team debuts a new starting quarterback against Florida State in Tallahassee, but several questions remain as the 2025 season approaches.

Alabama's running game in 2024 focused largely on the athleticism of Jalen Milroe, while underserving its running backs. The program's addition of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and departure of Milroe creates hope that the Crimson Tide will reestablish a traditional running game in 2025.

"Jam Miller is the man, love that guy," Grubb said. "Jam's been doing everything. I think the thing about a guy like Jam, you love older guys who don't feel like their skill set's complete. And what I mean by that is I think Jam, really wholeheartedly takes on, there's things that I can get better at. He works out extremely hard. He's very diligent about his process, so he's a good leader in the room.

Alabama distributed 282 carries to its tailbacks in 2025, while Milroe toted the rock 168 times. The Crimson Tide brought in Dre Washington from Louisiana and recruited 5-star running back AK Dear to go along with returning contributors Miller, Richard Young, Daniel Hill and Kevin Riley.

"I think Daniel [Hill] has shown the physicality we thought with exceptional hands," Grubb continued. "I think Dre's [Washington] getting better at pass protection, as is Rich [Richard Young]. So those four guys have really shown a lot of growth. Even AK Dear is a guy that was really swimming this spring and has shown some promise here lately. Normally, I don't talk about those younger guys too much, but just been proud of his progress the last couple of days have been really good."

The Crimson Tide offense featured Miller and now departed Justice Haynes heavily in 2024, while its three depth pieces all took fewer than 30 carries the entire year. So how many of the six scholarship running backs will be featured in 2025?

"Whatever we need in the game plan," Grubb said. "Sometimes there's some specialty stuff that you need a little bit more of one type of back. I think that we're lucky that we have a lot of different types of backs. So, I think that you normally are going into almost any game thinking there's at least three guys that are going to get considerable reps."