There is no meaningful debate about how historically poor the 2023 Alabama Crimson Tide has been at running the football. Diving into a vault of detail, Saturday Down South's Connor O'Gara labeled the Crimson Tide rushing attack "dreadful." He is not wrong.
O'Gara asks if "Alabama can win a title" with its current average of 3.5 rushing yards per attempt. Actually, O'Gara stated the average is 3.6 yards, but Sports Reference has the stat at 3.5 yards.
O'Gara explains that no National Champion in the 21st century has had such a weak rushing performance. The lowest was Oklahoma in 2000 at 3.9 yards. The other 24 National Champions this century ranged from 4.3 yards to 6.6 yards, with an average of 5.4 yards.
A reasonable conclusion is that the Alabama Crimson Tide will make history if it wins this season's national championship. Or, Alabama's rushing yards per carry average will improve. Expecting more than marginal improvement running the football feels improbable.
What about rushing yards and SEC Championships? Going back to the 2000 season, only two teams have won the SEC Championship Game and finished the season with less than four rushing yards per attempt. They were Florida in 2000 (3.7 yards) and Georgia in 2002 (3.6 yards).
In Alabama's nine SEC championship seasons this century, the Crimson Tide averaged 4.98 rushing yards per attempt. During the same period, Georgia won five SEC championships with a rushing yards average of 4.72 yards. In LSU's five SEC championship seasons, the Bengal Tigers' average was 4.6 rushing yards per attempt. In Auburn's three SEC championship seasons, the Tigers' average was 5.4 yards. In Florida's three SEC championship seasons, the Gators' average was 4.7 yards.
O'Gara provides another truly troubling stat. Alabama running backs are not good at forcing missed tackles. Ty Simpson leads the team with 15 forced missed tackles. Jam Miller has just nine, which ranks him No. 33 among SEC football players.
How much does the history matter for the Alabama Crimson Tide?
College football passing attacks may have evolved so much that only the statistics from the past 10 seasons are relevant. It is also possible that the quartet of Kalen DeBoer, Ryan Grubb, Nick Sheridan, and Ty Simpson is good enough to beat the longer historical averages. Alabama's offense against Oklahoma's defense will offer a good test.