Alabama Football Daily Insider: In 2017 Bama Will Have A Running Back Advantage
By Ronald Evans
Alabama football fans have a big appetite for information and we’ll be serving up healthy portions of hot food for thought with a side of seasonal inside information every morning this Spring.
There was a time when getting to the Waysider early on a weekday morning was the best way to learn what was really going on with Alabama football.
In the compact dining area, all you had to do was listen. Most conversations included tidbits of information about the University and the football program.
These days there is more to be gleaned by surveying the digital landscape of multitudinous sources. The problem with this wondrous abundance of information is in separating the sense from the nonsense.
That’s where we come in. This column will endeavor to guide that process of discernment.
We’ll peruse message boards, podcasts, tweets, talk radio and numerous digital communication platforms. We’ll ferret out the most worthwhile information and offer our take on what it means.
The Daily Insider: April 5
SEC Football has a wealth of elite running backs: Nick Chubb and Sony Michel at Georgia; Derrius Guice at LSU; Rawleigh Williams at Arkansas; Kerryon Johnson and Kamryn Pettway at Auburn; Trayveon Williams at Texas A&M; Ralph Webb at Vanderbilt; Damarea Crockett at Missouri – and others, too numerous to mention.
It is enough for some aspiring spin-master to declare 2017 as the Year of The Running Back in the SEC.
Alabama Crimson Tide Football
At one school, running back (my apology for this) just means more. That school is Alabama. Two Heisman trophies won by Tide running backs Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry within the last seven seasons is impressive. But those bronze statues will not gain one yard for the Tide in 2017.
If Bo Scarbrough wins another Heisman after a full season of health, there will still be more. That MORE is the deepest bench, of the greatest running back talent in college football.
Alabama football has more running backs than any team can fully utilize. They are all good, very good. Saban has a history of getting carries for three backs in a season. In 2017 the bench is six backs, three of them former 5-Star recruits and all six capable of stardom.
Perhaps one of them red-shirts in 2017. Maybe of the remaining five, two are not healthy for full seasons. That leaves three exceptional players to wear down opposing defenses. On the basis of talent and numbers, no team in America will have the fourth-quarter RB hammer that will be wielded by the Tide.
Check out the video below of the RB’s in practice drills. Take a close look at No. 22. Coaches lecture media and fans that eye-ball tests mean absolutely nothing. Okay, we get it. But look at No. 22 anyway. Had Najee Harris chosen Michigan, he would be their No. 1 now.
If the Alabama football RB’s had a clear depth chart today, No. 22 would probably be No. 4 or maybe No. 5. Take a close look at him in the video and think about that.
My oh, my – 2017 college football defenses – what is coming for you from a Crimson Tide backfield is a force, unlike anything you have ever seen. Confront it at your own risk.
Next: Current Projected 2017 Depth Chart
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