Ryan Grubb discusses the Bama rushing attack before the season opener.
Grubb details what he wants to see from the Alabama running game.
Video Transcript
What do you want to establish with the run game in week one?
Well, you know, it starts with you, you want to try to open up some opportunities either pull the defense apart and get some long seams for the running back, 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, you know, for us, just the availability of keeping the ball consistently moving forward.
And eliminating the negative yardage runs is, is gonna be step one, and that, that's a very low bar, um, and I guess what I'm saying there is the communication piece and 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.
And if they do that and take care of the line of scrimmage and work vertically, um, I think they're they're going to have all the results that they want to see.
Stay on the left and go to chase in the front row, just staying on the run game a little bit.
Obviously the offensive line got the brunt of the criticism last year, but were the issues last year.
Year, how much of it was due to the running backs themselves maybe not playing up to par or the wide receivers not blocking well enough and not just the offensive line and what does that picture look like coming into this year?
Yeah, well, certainly don't want to labor last year too much.
I think we get stuck on some things and we certainly push our guys not to do that, um, but the run game is a team thing.
It's a It's how we run the ball in practice.
It's how our receivers execute on the perimeter.
It certainly is the offensive line, and then, you know, the vision and, and strength of the running back is, is all part of it.
And I think for us right now, uh, we're in a really, really good spot there.
I think we got a highly competitive.
Running back room.
We've got a group of offensive linemen that have been able to gel and build a consistent run game.
I think that's one of the bright points of camp is that our guys have built a consistent run game that we can go out every day against a really good defense, and consistently the ability.
Go stay on the left here, Joe.
Coach, do you expect EJ to be available this weekend?
And if so, what's your expectation for him?
Yeah, we do.
Um, he's pushing every day.
He was out there yesterday practicing and moving, you know, that's, I always leave that decision up to Jeff, um, you know, and ultimately he's going to be in charge of that.
But EJ is, I told him yesterday, he's like the Wolverine.
I mean the guy's unbelievable, him and Noah Rodgers are, those guys are a different planet.
So, uh, I've been really, really impressive.
Um, I didn't see any setbacks yesterday with EJ.
He's cutting off of.
Um, both of his feet and looked really, really good.
So, um, we'll just see how he keeps progressing.
