Predicting a championship: 1000-yard rusher

Mystical

All-American
Sep 28, 2009
4,052
458
107
Fairhope, Alabama
Najee relies too much on juking and jiving, instead of great burst between the tackles. I like him a lot, but I don’t think he’s the prototypical back of the Saban era.
To be fair with limited touches he always wanted to hit the homerun. Next year as the feature back I think he will take some of those 3 yard runs.
 

KrAzY3

Hall of Fame
Jan 18, 2006
10,615
4,540
187
44
kraizy.art
He'll be the featureback when his playing style takes the 3 yarder over the -4 yarder.
Najee averaged 6.7 this year, almost a full yard better than any other Alabama running back. It's not like he spent a lot of time going backwards...
 

rgw

Suspended
Sep 15, 2003
20,852
1,351
232
Tuscaloosa
No deny that but no denying that Saban is probably more worried about the times he put us in 2nd and 14 than we are.
 

Mystical

All-American
Sep 28, 2009
4,052
458
107
Fairhope, Alabama
sometimes stats don't do reality justice. This is one of those times. Najee wasn't #1 or #2 for a reason, just like Damien was ahead of Bo for 2 years. CNS loves MI type backs that hit holes hard, and showcases them over side to side backs for a reason.
Coach Saban has notoriously played the upper class running back more. Think about it we couldn't get Alvin Kamara on the field. I know there were some off field stuff but he was going to have to wait his turn. If we truly played the best back JJ would have started. DH had experience and he came back for his senior year. All those stops around the goal line we didn't give JJ or NH a crack at it. On 4th and 1 we trust JJ the most but we don't put him in for 1st and goal. I think Najee and Brian both will have break out seasons. Every time Brian played I was impressed. I think the seniority thing got him also. Luckily for us he loves Alabama football and was willing to wait his turn. Not sure what Sanders will do have not seen him take a college snap yet. If memory serves I believe Najee was rated slightly higher than Sanders even though they both were 5 star. I think Brian Robinson is going to explode on the college football season next year. We may have two players in NY for the heisman, Tua and Najee.
 

KrAzY3

Hall of Fame
Jan 18, 2006
10,615
4,540
187
44
kraizy.art
No deny that but no denying that Saban is probably more worried about the times he put us in 2nd and 14 than we are.
I don't have that info in front of me in terms of his negative runs, but he averaged 6.7 with a long of 32. He was consistently putting up positive yards, these weren't inflated by big runs and couldn't have had many negative runs either. Damien is the one whose numbers have always been inflated by long runs. I will say I have seen Najee try to run laterally when he should just take the easy 3, but this is a transition that Henry made when he became a feature back as well. So I'm not worried about it at all, Najee is capable of carrying this team in the running game.
 

rgw

Suspended
Sep 15, 2003
20,852
1,351
232
Tuscaloosa
Yep. I'm not worried but this is his next step. He seems to have the frame and durability to be a 20 carry/game back and I think it is likely he gets to that range of touches. Right now I think we're going to see our offense scale back the passing game utilization a bit and get better play from the defense. I think Tua throwing for 4000 is almost as likely as Najee running for 1500 next season. When you know you're dominant at QB and WR, sometimes establishing that you're a run-first team by tendency allows you to pull the wool over better defense's eyes later in the season when the competition improves and opponents playing to tendencies improve with it.
 

KrAzY3

Hall of Fame
Jan 18, 2006
10,615
4,540
187
44
kraizy.art
Sometimes establishing that you're a run-first team by tendency allows you to pull the wool over better defense's eyes later in the season when the competition improves and opponents playing to tendencies improve with it.
Agreed, and Coker is a good example. Late in the season Alabama really turned up the passing game and against Clemson he put up a 203 rating against them, 335 yards, 2 TDs. I doubt he can do that if Alabama hadn't established themselves as a running team with Henry first.
 

editder

All-SEC
Nov 2, 2017
1,536
1,654
182
A healthy Bo in 2016 equals a championship. It was clear Harris could not produce like Bo did against Clemson.
That’s not true.

Are you Steve Sarkisian? He certainly thought that. That’s why he abandoned the run and cost Bama the 2016 title.
My memory may a little fuzzy on this, but it seems to me that, even though Bo was doing well early in the game, by the time of his injury they had adjusted and were shutting him down. Not much was happening on the ground.

The game was lost because of a lack of any passing threat, which also allowed them to tee off on the run and tire out our defense with repeated three-and-outs.
 

Ledsteplin

Hall of Fame
Nov 20, 2013
5,506
5,175
187
71
Florence, Alabama
I have a feeling CCH will straighten out the running backs. Whether that translates to a 1,000 yard rusher remains to be seen. Regardless, I believe we'll see improvement in the run game.
 

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