Alabama Football: Damien Harris needs to slash Clemson with patience

Alabama football star running back Damien Harris will make better use of his cuts if he waits for the offensive line to make their blocks against Clemson in this season’s Sugar Bowl.

If you haven’t heard, Damien Harris is a mighty fine running back for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team. You also may not have been watching college football very much.

Due to the nature of Alabama football’s platoon of stud rushers, Harris has slowly but surely moved up the college football ranks as one of the country’s best. His success is vital for Alabama to succeed over Clemson on New Year’s Day in the Sugar Bowl, as much of the offense relies on a balance between the run and the passing game.

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Harris lost weight after last season, slimming down to a stout 221 pounds of muscle. It has helped him move out into the flats to catch some passes as well as moving out of the backfield for a strong rush up the middle or to bounce to the edges.

In 110 rushing attempts, Harris has gained 906 yards and 11 touchdowns, averaging 8.2 yards a carry. College football’s rushing leader Rashaad Penny has earned 2 027 yards in 275 rushing attempts for San Diego State, which equates to 7.4 yards per carry.

Harris is the perfect example of it being not about how many yards a player gets as much as it is about what kind of yards he earns. Whenever Alabama football has needed a big run from Harris, he has delivered.

For many observant college football fans and experts, Harris’ way that he earns his yards has been very noticeable:

This statement says a great deal about Harris’ talent. It can be a great weapon when used properly.

Running back Le’veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers is a possible candidate for most valuable player in the National Football League, because of the slashing that he does with such patience. He waits for his blockers, whether on the offensive line or the wide receivers, to create daylight and he runs for it. His 1 222 yards and eight touchdowns have helped the Steelers secure first place in the AFC North division and put them in the running for home field advantage throughout the NFL playoffs.

Having Bell’s name mentioned in the same sentence as Harris is a fabulous compliment for the young man playing under head coach Nick Saban.

Bell’s running technique must also be the strategy for Harris to employ against a good Clemson defense. The Tigers have only allowed opposing rushers 112.8 yards per game, good enough for 13th in the country, according to ESPN.com. Only five of those attempts were for touchdowns, making opposing offenses have to throw the ball in order to score against Clemson.

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The Clemson defensive line is tenacious and, even though they are excellent on the pass rush, their long arms and ability to keep their feet allow them to snag any running backs who come near them.

For Harris to move into the secondary and gain those extra yards for first downs, he will need to avoid those long arms by doing one thing: showing patience on his cuts.

Alabama football fans are used to seeing running backs like Derrick Henry and Bo Scarbrough run down the throats of many defenders, including some of Clemson’s players, with much success. However, Clemson’s D-linemen and linebackers may be an even better crew than last season. When Harris was called upon to fill in for the injured Scarbrough, who left and never returned to the national championship a year ago, he could only gain 24 yards on five carries and was a relative non-factor in the loss.

Harris cannot let that happen again.

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Harris’ game is more of a jabbing, stick-and-move kind of running. Those jabbing jump cuts have a ton of strength behind them, though. If Harris sticks to his more successful type of running, like Bell, the only thing that could possibly stop him is Alabama’s own offensive line not doing their job blocking for him.