One of Alabama's 'Biggest Sins' Last Season That Tide Wants to Change in Week 1

The Crimson Tide had one of the worst rushing attacks in the country last season, and the season opener against East Carolina is the first opportunity to improve upon it.

Alabama running back Daniel Hill runs the ball in the first half of the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama needs to run the ball better in 2026 than it did in 2025. It's a topic that has been discussed repeatedly during the offseason, but it's because it's that important for the Crimson Tide to be more competent in the run game than where it was a year ago (125th in the nation.)

What does it look like for the Crimson Tide to establish the run in Week 1 against East Carolina this Saturday?

"We want to be consistent," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said during his Monday press conference. "The physicality you see in a lot of different ways in a football team, but statistically that's what a lot of people look at it, and you can't deny that, right? For us, it's doing your job -- that's across the board. It's not just the offensive line. It's the quarterback doing a good job carrying out fakes because that's going to hold a defender. Receivers getting in there and doing their job, specifically, depending on the play -- what their responsibility is. Running backs anticipating based on what they're seeing in front of them pre-snap going and executing. It's everyone executing at a high level."

When DeBoer watches the film after the game, he wants to see guys working together to get the ground game going. With an entirely new offensive line, a new quarterback and some young running backs, things won't be perfect in the first game, but he wants the guys to be in sync.

Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said it starts with opening up opportunities for the running backs, to pull apart the defense and create seams.

"But at the same time, you know, for us, I thought one of our biggest sins last year was the number of negative yardage runs that we had," Grubb said. "You know, for us, just the availability of keeping the ball consistently moving forward and eliminating the negative yardage runs is going to be step one. And that's a very low bar. And I guess what I'm saying there is the communication piece that we're on the same page and we don't have busted A and B gap assignments. And for us, that's going to be priority one. If they do that, take care of the line scrimmage and work vertically, I think they're going to have all the results that they want to see.”

Alabama will be without sophomore running back AK Dear for the first couple of games, but the offense got positive news when Grubb announced Monday morning that five-star freshman EJ Crowell will be available for the Crimson Tide in the season opener. Alabama also has senior Daniel Hill , junior Kevin Riley and freshman Trae'shawn Brown.

The quality of opponent on Alabama's schedule will only get tougher, but East Carolina is a respectable team from the American Conference that went 9-4 last season, winning a bowl game. The Pirates finished 25th in the nation in rush defense.

This first game will be an early opportunity and test for Alabama's running backs, offensive line, receivers, tight ends and quarterback to work in cohesion to establish a more dominant run game this season.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.