Ryan Grubb believes that Alabama's offense can still improve, even though the calendar has already flipped to November.
Conventional wisdom is that you are who you are by this time of the year. If that's the case, then Alabama's offense is bad at running the football. The Crimson Tide ranks 127th in the country in rushing success rate, per Game on Paper.
Grubb doesn't believe in that conventional wisdom. Better yet, neither does the Alabama football team. The coaching staff has gotten the team bought into the fact that they can still improve in November and morph into the best version of themselves down the stretch of the regular season.
That includes improvement on the offensive line and in the running game.
Grubb noted during his weekly press conference on Monday that Alabama has "got to block better." He also noted that he and the offensive staff spent a lot of time over the bye week evaluating how to get better at running the football.
"We've really looked at that," Grubb said. "The last two practices have done a really good job on that.
"I was really impressed with the practice we had yesterday.... There's a belief that improvement can still happen in this portion of the season."
The bye week could have done wonders for Alabama's running game
A week of rest never hurt anyone. Senior RB Jam Miller certainly needed the rest following a concussion he suffered in the 4th quarter of Alabama's win over Missouri a few weeks ago. Miller returned for the Tennessee game and played again against South Carolina, but he didn't look like the back who ran the ball hard against the Tigers before the injury, nor the back that produced well over 100 rushing yards against Vanderbilt.
A 100% Miller would go a long way to improving the Crimson Tide's ground attack.
Redshirt freshman Daniel Hill has dealt with nagging injuries this season as well, but he really started to emerge in the last couple of games before the bye week. He was Alabama's leader in scrimmage yards (86) during the 29-22 win over South Carolina.
Hill has supplanted classmate Kevin Riley as the Crimson Tide's RB2 and should continue to see an increased role down the stretch.
The running game is the only thing holding Alabama's offense back from going from good to truly elite. Ty Simpson has been among the best quarterbacks in the country through eight games, and if Alabama can have a viable threat in the running game, defenses will have to respect it more and open up better opportunities for Simpson to carve up defenses vertically.
Grubb's Monday update was certainly encouraging, but we'll find out for sure whether Alabama has taken a step forward on the ground this weekend against LSU.