Why big Alabama running back can be difference maker against Florida State

Alabama football’s season opener against Florida State has the ingredients of being a game that a clean white uniform is terrified of.

Bad weather is expected to play a role in Saturday’s game, meaning there could be more ground and pound from each team and less air raid attack due to the wet conditions. With running back Jam Miller out due to injury, multiple Crimson Tide running backs will get a handful of carries, but a guy like Daniel Hill has the size and ability to potentially make the Florida State defense quit.

Hill is 6-foot-1, 244-pound running back that can bruise a tackler and is athletic enough to put his foot in the ground, get vertical and cruise to moving the chains. When looking at Florida State’s linebacker room, Hill is larger than every Seminole linebacker and perhaps is just as athletic as them.

With it being the first game without Miller, head coach Kalen DeBoer and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb will likely divvy up the carries to give each back a reasonable chance to show what they can do in a live game, but Hill has the tools to be a difference maker on Saturday.

“He’s more versatile, considering he’s over 240 pounds, than I think what people would probably think,” DeBoer said on Wednesday. “He’s very natural. I think he’s got some quick feet in the hole, and he can also catch the ball out of the backfield. And so, it’s just playing with a consistency. He’s pretty assignment sound. Pretty good that way. It’s just a matter of him being able to do it at a high level every single day, and again, you won’t know that until we get into the season here, just like with the other guys.”

Before Miller’s injury, Hill was already making great strides this offseason, receiving high praise from the Crimson Tide staff. The most important thing to DeBoer is having the same level of trust and comfort with another running back that he has with the experienced Miller, and Hill is a guy that DeBoer said he is “getting more and more comfortable with.”

After one of Alabama’s fall camp practices this month, linebacker Deontae Lawson was asked which Alabama running back is hardest to come down hill and tackle, and he put Hill’s name up there with Miller.

“Jam Miller of course because he’s low to the ground, low center of gravity so you have to bring it, and obviously Danny Hill,” Lawson said. “He’s about 240, solid muscle, and he packs a punch too.”

If Hill can find a groove and have consistent carries this Saturday, the running lanes could open more and more as the game progresses and lead to a Crimson Tide rushing touchdown.

Hill and the rest of the Alabama running back room will have an opportunity to step up in Miller’s absence. Alabama and Florida State clash in Tallahassee this Saturday at 2:30 p.m.