What injury to Jam Miller means for Alabama football

Alabama football suffered a huge blow to its roster when Jam Miller went down with an injury during the Crimson Tide’s latest scrimmage.

Miller is expected to be the Tide’s featured running back in 2025.

“Jam Miller, he’s the man,” Alabama’s offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb recently said. “Love that guy. So, Jam’s been doing everything. When you think about a guy like Jam, you love guys that feel like their skill set is not complete. What I mean by that is that Jam really wholeheartedly takes on like, ‘There’s things I can get better at,’ and he works out extremely hard. He’s very diligent about his process. So, he’s a good leader in the room.”

Miller’s injury leaves the Tide with many questions and reasons for concern. If he misses an extended amount of time, Alabama will have to lean on a backfield with a lot of untapped and unproven potential.

There was a competition going on behind Miller before he went down. All signs pointed to it being a gap between him and the other Alabama running backs competing for carries. Richard Young, Daniel Hill and Dre Washington were among the backs mentioned the most during fall camp so far in terms of competing for the No. 2 running back spot.

Young earned more snaps as the season progressed in 2024. He rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries in seven games of action. He was the favorite to take on the No. 2 role after the season ended, and Justice Haynes entered the transfer portal.

However, the emergence of Daniel Hill and Dre Washington has made things quite interesting as of late for the Tide’s running back room. Grubb said Hill took a huge step forward in the spring, and he had continued to grow during the early part of fall camp.

“Daniel Hill is a guy we’re getting more and more comfortable with,” Kalen DeBoer said. “He’s a big back, but I think it’s deceiving what he does from a skill set standpoint because he can catch the ball out of the backfield.”

Washington transferred to Alabama from Louisiana during the offseason. He averaged 6.5 yards per carry on 73 attempts in 2024. He ended the year with 478 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns.

The transfer becomes the Tide’s most experienced active running back.

Alabama is likely to run the football by committee during Miller’s absence. DeBoer recently had some good things to say about how each back brings a different skill set to the table.

“There’s skill sets, there’s different things that each guy brings, body types are a little bit different but in the end it’s not like someone is so much different than to where it affects who’s in there, we’re just teaching them all the offense,” DeBoer said. “Especially when you get into the padding, the physicality, the blocking pieces, that’s a big part of it, is breaking tackles, being able to get in there and protect for the quarterback and do a great job of it. So, they’re all really competing but that’s really where it’s at with those guys. They’re all doing a really good job.”

Alabama’s running back room will garner a lot of attention moving forward with Miller out.