Kalen DeBoer Opens Up About Alabama Running Game After Second Scrimmage

Alabama football's offense is looking for a total makeover in spring practice. The Crimson Tide got to the SEC Championship Game and qualified for the College Football Playoff in 2026 with a largely non-existent running game. Kalen DeBoer saw his offense finish 125th out of 136 FBS teams in rushing offense, averaging 104.13 yards per game in 2025, and knows that turning that weakness into a strength is this offseason's highest priority.

Alabama looks to replace four starters along the offensive line and, therefore, brought in six offensive linemen from the transfer portal and secured a recruiting class featuring five fresh faces. DeBoer offered an encouraging status update after the Crimson Tide's second scrimmage of the spring practice season.

"I think there's the ones and the twos, and I would say there's a difference between what their strengths are right now, a lot of it's the matchup they have in front of them," DeBoer said. "I think you probably want to talk about the ones first. They started a little bit slow the first couple drives, got some seams, and the running backs hit it for some explosives, and then it just goes back and forth. It's the ebs and flows of football, but I think overall what you see is they're understanding what their responsibility is, getting another level of installs, getting some new things we put in, we feel like the stuff we've repped, and that's across the board, they've done a good job of picking up the things that are newer. We've still got some work to do. I think the potential is there. I think from run game, slowly inching forward, it's not all of the sudden you're going to hit it all, there's progress in certain things, there's certain schemes and stuff we're not as strong in yet, but there's some thing we could go to if we had to play a game this weekend that we feel pretty confident in."

While the offensive line integrates new players into the unit the backfield looks somewhat similar from last season outside of one majore addition. The Crimson Tide lost veteran Jam Miller to graduation but welcomed 5-star freshman EJ Crowell into the position room. Unfortunately, the highly touted prospect hasn't participated fully as he's dealing with a minor injury.

“EJ hasn’t practiced since last week, so probably more of the same for next week,” DeBoer said.

Outside of of Crowell Alabama welcomes Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley and AK Dear back with another year of experience under their belts.

“I thought Kevin Riley, when he had seams to hit, he accelerated, showed some good burst,” DeBoer said. “He’s got a good knack of getting in between, slithering through, and finding those holes. Daniel [Hill], I thought, had a good week of practice. Probably didn’t get quite as many opportunities to hit the big ones today, and that’s not always necessarily on him.”

The Crimson Tide faithful are excited about Crowell's potential and the potential of the returning trio, but DeBoer complimented a different freshman who stood out in the second scrimmage out of the backfield.

“The guy that I thought had a nice week was Trae’shawn [Brown],” DeBoer said. “Showed a little bit today in the scrimmage, but I thought throughout the week, there was a live session, short-yardage, goal line and things like that that he showed some pop, he showed some instinctiveness on how to get that first down when its 3rd and 2, 4th and 1, whatever it might be. “It’s never pretty, it’s never perfect because there’s a lot of dudes up on the line of scrimmage. But I think overall, he’s had some good progress here this spring.”

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