Alabama Football: Emil Ekiyor’s flip is sign of Tide’s run dominance

Alabama football’s success with running the ball makes Emil Ekiyor’s flip from Michigan understandable. Alabama’s rushers would only make Ekiyor look good.

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It is said that one must learn to walk before one can run. In this case, Alabama’s ability to run likely helped Emil Ekiyor walk away from the University of Michigan.

Ronald Evans of BamaHammer.com stated that “Ekiyor’s announcement brings the Alabama football 2018 recruiting class to 12 players. In addition to Tommy Brown and Jarrett Bell, Alabama football now has three offensive line commits for 2018. The Crimson Tide is expected to sign only four offensive linemen due to tight overall numbers.”

Ekiyor feels “more comfortable” with Alabama football’s coaching staff and the team itself, and why not? The plethora of Crimson Tide running backs has rolled over opponents for a number of years, under head coach Nick Saban, and have looked more dominant than ever. Why should Ekiyor go to Michigan when Alabama’s rushers can make him, and the rest of the offensive line, look like Moses parting the Red Sea of defensive linemen?

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As a team, Alabama has rushed 377 times for 2 390 yards, an average of 6.3 yards per carry, and 28 touchdowns. Nine different players have carried the ball, including starting quarterback Jalen Hurts (84 carries, 572 yards). The top running backs Damien Harris (81 carries, 697 yards) and Bo Scarbrough (81 carries, 377 yards) are still juniors, while Josh Jacobs (24 carries, 171 yards) is a sophomore and Najee Harris (49 carries, 282 yards) is only a freshman. Even freshman Brian Robinson Jr. (17 carries, 115 yards) has found success running for Alabama.

With that kind of firepower in the backfield, why would Ekiyor want to go anywhere else?

While Alabama’s balanced attack of run and pass has them ranked 7th overall in the country for rushing, Michigan is only 37th in total rushing yards. Alabama is also ranked 4th in yards per carry, while Michigan is ranked 57th (4.4 yards per carry).

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It seems that success is only breeding more success in Alabama, rather than in Michigan. Many, if not all, of these running backs are still young and have a number of years left to play for Alabama. The team has committed to treating their offensive line as the backbone of the team, already creating a great veteran unit while lining up top recruits for the future. As long as Ekiyor can produce at center as expected, all that Ekiyor would have to do is concentrate on his job in Alabama, instead of trying to be in five places at once for Michigan.

It’s one thing to shine as the best player on the team at one’s position, but it’s another thing to try putting the entire team on one’s back and carry them to victory. Sometimes, that doesn’t work out, and the star player can be overlooked by NFL draft scouts because of the team’s lack of success.