re: Bama Football Tidings

Posted on 8/1/19 at 10:22 pm to RollTide66

Posted by RollTide66

Atlanta

Member since Nov 2015

3005 posts

Posted on 8/1/19 at 10:22 pm to RollTide66

Alabama football – Embarrassment of riches or not – Running Backs – By Larry Burton ...Continued from above...

quote:
Another incoming freshman is 6’0” 210 pound Cooper Bishop from Vestavia Hills, Alabama where he ran for 1285 yards and 17 TD’s as a senior. He’s got 4.55 speed and will likely get broken in on special teams where he tackles like a linebacker. It’s likely the Tide red shirts him this season.

There’s also a smaller, lighter slasher kind of freshman, A.J. Gates from Mountain Brook, Alabama. At just 5’7” and 170 pounds and with a 4.42 40 yard dash, if he gets through a crack he’s gone. He is electric as you can see in these videos from Hudl. He accounted for well over 1000 yards of offense and 11 touchdowns. He came to Alabama as a preferred walk on turning down full rides at other schools.

But wait a minute. Didn’t Saban have other top classes? Of course he did and Jerome Ford, a (5’11” 206 pounder who is a red shirt freshman this year is ready for his time to shine and is picked by this author to be the real surprise running back in this group.

He was the nation’s number six all purpose back coming out of high school and played in just the mandatory four games last season to preserve his red shirt status, so he’s not without experience from that and the scout team. He is a very capable back up indeed and might start on a lot of other teams, so this is the point where you really can start talking about an embarrassment of riches at this point, especially after seeing these video clips.

But to sound like a late night infomercial, but wait, there’s more!

Contined below...

This post was edited on 8/1/19 at 10:54 pm

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Posted by RollTide66

Atlanta

Member since Nov 2015

3005 posts

Posted on 8/1/19 at 10:23 pm to RollTide66

Alabama football – Embarrassment of riches or not – Running Backs – By Larry Burton ...Continued from above...

quote:
De’Marquise Lockridge is here for one last shot at football as a walk on graduate transfer and even I’ll admit, he’s a totally unknown commodity. Except for knowing he’s 5’11’ and about 218 pounds, there’s not much experience for a guy who’s been around as long as he has. We just don’t know what he has to offer but it will be fun to unwrap him and see what he can do.

Lockridge ran for over 800 yards as a senior in high school averaging 8.5 yards a carry at Lawrence County High School in Tennessee, but I’ll be darned if that isn’t all I know. He’s either going to be a real unknown or a real sneak in success. See these videos and see what you think.

And there’s also Jahi Brown, 6’0?, 223 pound junior and a hometown boy from Hillcrest High in Tuscaloosa. He’s a gifted pass catcher as well as a running back as you can see in these videos. He knows the system and can has the power to pick up opposing rushers. He runs hard and can run over folks for short yardage situations. It will be interesting to see him in mop up play this season.

Lastly there’s Chadarius Townsend, at 6’0” and nudging the scales at near 200 pounds, Saban experimented with this receiver at the running back spot and during the A Day Game, he looked like it was an experiment that could stick. And why not?

In high school he was a quarterback and one of the top recruits in the state. As a senior he accounted for more than 2,700 yards of offense and 35 touchdowns, 13 of those TD’s was when he was passing for 1245 yards and the other 22 touchdowns came from his running ability while he was rushing for 1,481 yards. Look at these videos and you’ll see why Saban let him work out the running backs.

Now if you have a guy like this on bench at maybe in the 10th string spot, I’d say that anyone who doesn’t think there’s an embarrassment of riches at running back doesn’t know how to rate talent.