OXFORD, Miss. – Although Alabama had waxed Southern California and Western Kentucky by a combined score of 90-16 entering Saturday’s trip to Ole Miss, there was one aspect of the nation’s top-ranked team that seemed a little off.
After all, is it truly Alabama football without a dominant running game?
The Crimson Tide entered Vaught-Hemingway Stadium averaging an adequate 183.0 rushing yards a game before pounding out 334 yards (7.0 per carry) during their 48-43 win over the Rebels. Freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts led Alabama with 18 carries for 146 yards (8.1 average), while sophomore tailback Damien Harris was right behind with 16 rushes for 144 yards (9.0) and a touchdown.
Even freshman Joshua Jacobs made a splash in his debut against a Southeastern Conference foe with three carries for 33 yards (11.0).
“It’s a confidence boost, because we worked on it all week in practice,” said Harris, who is averaging 109.0 yards per game and 9.1 per carry. “We wanted to establish today that we are a running team still, and hopefully that’s what we did.”
Said left guard Ross Pierschbacher: “We knew we had to have a good week of preparation, and I think we did that. All the guys came out playing hard. We all knew what we had to do.”
The Crimson Tide remained No. 1 Sunday in the Associated Press and Amway coaches polls and will venture back out of conference this week when they host Kent State.
Alabama was averaging 4.4 yards per carry heading into Saturday, a figure bolstered by 73- and 46-yard runs by Harris against Southern California. In Oxford, the 5-11, 214-pounder from Berea, Ky., broke free for a 67-yard run to the Ole Miss 1-yard line in the waning moments of the third quarter to set up Bo Scarbrough’s touchdown that gave the Crimson Tide the lead for good at 34-27.
Harris credited offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin for his longest run of the day.
“I just wanted to make a play for the team,” Harris said. “We had run the same play the play before, and Coach saw something I guess to where he thought we could run it again.”
The Crimson Tide had a robust rushing performance despite falling behind 24-3 in the second quarter, the largest deficit of the Saban era that has reached its 10th season. A 22-yard run by Hurts set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Calvin Ridley to pull Alabama within 24-10, and the Tide didn’t take much longer to pull even, getting an 85-yard punt return by Eddie Jackson late in the first half and a Daron Payne 3-yard fumble return for a touchdown early in the second half.
“We knew offensively that we were selling ourselves short, but we just focused on the fact that it’s a long game,” Harris said. “An early lead doesn’t really mean anything. We knew we had a lot to improve on in different places.”
Saban was quick to credit all three phases of the game for contributing. He was pleased with the improvement the running game showed from the first two games, but he found another area that needs tweaking.
“We ran the ball really effectively, but we need to throw it a little better,” Saban said. “Jalen sprained his wrist a little in the second quarter (and) that may have affected his throwing, but he’ll be fine. He actually threw it better later in the game.”
Tide tidbits
Alabama is 14-for-14 this season in red-zone scoring opportunities with 10 touchdowns and four field goals. Saturday’s game drew a healthy 5.4 rating on CBS. That doubled the 2.7 last year’s Auburn-LSU telecast had on the same network during the third weekend of the season and easily topped the 3.3 rating ABC had for the primetime “Battle at Bristol” between Tennessee and Virginia Tech on Sept. 10.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.