Alabama left Nashville with a 21-6 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday and a 8-2 record, but the box score didn’t hide the same old problem. The Crimson Tide still can’t get its run game rolling, and a scoreless first quarter plus another sluggish start on the ground made that obvious again.
That’s what made the day feel so familiar after last week’s 79-yard showing at LSU, when Alabama managed just 2.7 yards per carry. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb didn’t sugarcoat it then, opening Monday’s press conference with: "No media line bulls***, but we got to focus more on the run game, and it’s going to get fixed."
Six days later, the results were hardly any better.
Daniel Hill was the one bright spot. He ran with force, broke tackles and finished with 89 yards on 14 carries, good for 6.4 yards per attempt.
He also ripped off a 20-yard run. But his production covered up how little Alabama got from everyone else.
Take Hill out of the equation, and the rest of the rushing attack was almost nonexistent against a Vanderbilt defense that came in ranked 66th nationally against the run at 147.3 yards allowed per game. The other Alabama rushers combined for 17 carries and just 6 net yards, or 0.35 yards per attempt.
The larger issue is that the Tide never really changed its approach. Alabama threw it 34 times and ran it 31 times, finishing with 95 net rushing yards and 3.1 yards per carry.
That marked a fourth straight game without reaching 100 team rushing yards. Even more striking, only 19 of those 31 carries went to actual running backs, despite starting quarterback Keelon Russell playing on an injured ankle.
Grubb had also said Monday he wanted "to get the ball in the right people’s hands," but the distribution didn’t back that up. Outside of Hill, the rest of the running back room totaled only five carries for seven yards. Trae’shawn Brown had three carries for three yards, while EJ Crowell, who has been dealing with injuries, had two carries for four yards.
That left Hill carrying nearly three-quarters of the load, which is a tough way to survive against physical fronts. Alabama got by against Vanderbilt, but the performance didn’t look like a fix. It looked like a patch.
With two regular-season games left at Bryant-Denny Stadium and a 97% chance to reach the College Football Playoff, Alabama has reasons to feel good about where it stands. But the standard in Tuscaloosa goes beyond surviving. The Tide need a run game that can deliver more volume and better efficiency in the stretch run of November and into January.
Hill’s effort masked the issue for one afternoon. It won’t be enough when the postseason arrives.
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Week 11 brings the kind of pressure-packed setting that can reshape the bracket in a hurry, especially with teams like Notre Dame, Texas, UCLA, Kentucky and Boise State all trying to protect their own positioning. For Alabama, the challenge is less about style points now and more about surviving a late-season test that could determine whether its playoff case stays strong or starts to unravel. [Read more 🡒]