Thursday night’s Colorado-Georgia Tech game did something Alabama fans know all too well: it put a spotlight on the Crimson Tide’s recent running back misses.
The matchup featured both Justice Haynes and Richard Young, the pair Alabama once viewed as cornerstone pieces in its 2023 recruiting class. Both arrived in Tuscaloosa with top-five billing at the position, both were supposed to shape the future of the backfield, and both left without ever making the kind of impact their rankings suggested. Together, they managed 840 rushing yards across five seasons at Alabama before moving on - Haynes after the 2024 season and Young after last year.
And the game showed why neither really escaped the same limitations that held them back in Tuscaloosa.
Haynes has already flashed at Michigan, where he piled up 857 yards and 10 touchdowns before a season-ending injury. But the numbers only tell part of that story.
Of those 857 yards, 308 came on just five carries, meaning 36% of his output was packed into a tiny slice of his workload. When the lane is there, he can hit it fast.
When it isn’t, he doesn’t create much on his own. That was true at Alabama, and it showed again in his Georgia Tech debut.
The Yellow Jackets couldn’t open much for him, and he finished with 64 yards on 19 carries.
Young’s night was even quieter. After leaving Alabama in search of a bigger role, he found himself buried again at Colorado.
He started Alabama’s opener against Florida State last season with Jam Miller injured, but then got only 14 carries the rest of the year before entering the portal. At Colorado, he was listed as fifth-string on the official depth chart before kickoff, and that’s exactly how the game played out.
He didn’t get on the field until late in the third quarter, became the fifth Buffaloes back to see action, and turned three carries into 10 yards.
None of that is meant to take cheap shots at either player. Both wore the Script A and worked for their chances. The bigger point is that neither delivered on the promise that came with their recruiting hype, and Alabama paid a price for it.
Those whiffs were part of a broader issue in the backfield. High school running back recruiting under Saban wasn’t strong in the final few classes, and the last truly impactful back in Tuscaloosa was Georgia Tech transfer Jahmyr Gibbs.
Kalen DeBoer may already be trying to repair that damage. AK Dear was having a strong fall camp before suffering a high-ankle sprain in the first scrimmage, and he appears poised for a sophomore jump once he gets back. In the 2026 class, Alabama may have found two more answers: 5-star EJ Crowell, who could be the most talented high school back the Tide have signed since Najee Harris, and 3-star Trae’Shawn Brown, who has turned heads all offseason and looks like a legitimate option as a freshman.
With Dear, Crowell and Brown in the mix, Alabama has a real shot to reshape the conversation around its running game. Add in the offseason overhaul of the offensive line room, and DeBoer has already started addressing one of the weakest spots he inherited.
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