2024 will see the restocking of the Alabama RB room with familiar faces and great hopes.
There was turnover in Alabama’s summer, but not among the offensive backfield players. QB Jalen Milroe will remain in place.
And the Tide have a solid position group lined up for 2024 even if they lost two senior running backs this offseason. This spring, it has already been seen in passing.
It is usually desirable to have guys with diverse skill sets. It goes without saying that you need to be tough, quick, and visionary.
The fun thing, though, is the personalities. Everybody in the room, in my opinion, offers something unique to the table, said head coach Robert Gillespie.
The 1,600 yards and 14 touchdowns that Roydell Williams and Jase McClellan produced are long gone. Rather, with Richard Young, rookie Daniel Hill, and summer enlistee Kevin Riley filling in special teams responsibilities while waiting to touch the ball, third-year running back Jam Miller and second-year player Justice Haynes are slated to shoulder the most of the workload
Miller and Haynes acknowledge that they have been given a leadership position. Miller, who gained 201 yards via rushes and another 73 yards via four different passes, is attempting to coordinate everyone’s roles “in order to dominate.” Last season, Haynes claimed to have discovered the need of patience. In the Rose Bowl over Michigan, he scored on four of his 25 carries, igniting the Tide with 31 total yards.
In the conference final game, Miller caught his lone touchdown against the Bulldogs.
In response to a question about whether Haynes did anything to establish himself in the month that separated the SEC Championship and College Football Playoff quarterfinal, Gillespie said Haynes simply showed a greater grasp of the game plan.
It was a great way for the former five-star prospect to round off the season. Both Haynes and Miller thought it was important that Gillespie remained on Kalen DeBoer’s staff, especially after UA players flooded the transfer portal after Nick Saban’s departure.
Fantastic coach, fantastic man. It’s a challenging love. (Gillespie) will adore you and then rip you several times. As a coach, you require that. Haynes stated, “He’s going to push you to where you want to go.”
Under DeBoer and offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, the Tide offense will appear differently. However, Gillespie thinks that “football is football,” therefore developing into a well-rounded athlete is more important. Both running backs have worked on improving their ability to catch passes out of the backfield and run routes well enough to be moved outside during empty formations, which may cause a mismatch for a linebacker.
Haynes’s limited snaps from last fall showed his vision. Whenever Miller had a grab or run, he would erupt for 6.1 yards. However, both occasionally had trouble with pass protection, and Tommy Rees and Saban optioned for senior players. Alabama’s running backs showed off their ability to catch passes on wheel routes, but with a DeBoer strategy that relies heavily on timing and quickness when it isn’t trailing the offensive line, they ought to be able to do more.
Although I believe these guys truly possess a downhill physicality, they can also make a jumpcut, go outside, and pick up speed. Come out in the backfield, and we’ll simply figure out a way to get them touches. In reality, our offense focuses on locating methods to get the ball to its finest players in space. We definitely have an athletic advantage at running back, especially at this point in the season, according to DeBoer.
