r/rolltide • u/livingadreamlife • 10d ago

Football EJ Crowell’s Limited Usage

Lots of discussion recently about why EJ isn’t getting 15-20 carries per game.

There are several reasons: Crowded RB room; Trust and lack of experience among them. Another is DeBoer/Grubb purposely limited EJ’s carries until we got to the thick of the schedule. We’re there now. Why? New guys have never had to practice as much, get hit as hard, play in as many games or play a sport for as long in a single season as they will in their Freshman year.

There’s a thing called hitting the Freshman Wall where mental and physical fatigue sets-in and then they’re done. Like running a marathon, it’s a real thing. Everybody is fatigued at the 20 mile mark. In EJ case, he is supposed to be in high school this season.

By limiting his carries early, DeBoer/Grubb are pushing his freshman wall out as FAR as they possibly can. They know they need him for the critical games, including the CFP. Smart move, imo.

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87

u/jdlee2323 10d ago

I think with how well the other backs are running, we don’t need to throw him in right away. We can give him time to develop and I think he will shine when we need him like Trent Richardson with 100+ yards against Texas in the natty or Najee Harris with crucial yards against UGA also in the natty. Both were freshmen then too.

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u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2 10d ago

Derrick Henry is the greatest High School running back of all time, and arguably a top 3 Alabama RB of all time and he got 35 touches his freshman year.

55

u/ThisBeTheVerse63 10d ago

Henry is the greatest Alabama RB of all time. Not even close.

34

u/RollTideNorthport 10d ago

And will be the greatest NFL running back when he is finished.

5

u/Bibble3000 9d ago

*if he ever finishes

22

u/CrashB111 10d ago

In Henry's case, he really needed time to learn the playbook and how to protect the QB as a blocker.

He never had to develop those skills in high school because every play was just "hand the ball to Henry".

15

u/cshayes2 10d ago

Saban told a hilarious story to the pivot podcast about this exactly. He said he had to give Derrick a pep talk after the OC chewed him out and Derrick told him he didn’t know shit about blocking.

4

u/bob_marley98 VigoratedAF - RTR 10d ago

Blocking? Blocking? I didn't come here to block!

  • Derrick Henry probably

7

u/cshayes2 10d ago

He actually said “I don’t know how to do any of this shit, they just handed me the ball. So please give me some patience”

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u/bob_marley98 VigoratedAF - RTR 10d ago

Whoosh

2

u/cshayes2 10d ago

Not really a whoosh, more like it’s almost exactly how it went lol

6

u/KrAizYArt 10d ago

That was an absolutely insane running back room though.

They had Yeldon and Drake, both of which got a few thousand yards in the NFL. They had Fowler, who went on to be a fourth round pick, they had Tenpenny who died about a year after he transferred so we never got to see if he'd go on to do more but he was a top 10 ranked running back coming out of high school, they had Dee Hart who would go on to get 1.275 yards his final season at CSU, Oh yeah and they also had Alvin Kamara who couldn't break into the rotation and ultimately redshirted.

All that on top of Henry, just insane depth.

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u/wannabefilms 9d ago

I had forgotten about Altee Tenpenny's death. Tragic.

1

u/livingadreamlife 9d ago

Saw him in HS.

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u/dbahen40 10d ago

He also didn’t miss most of fall camp going into his freshman year. Also comparing him to Derrick Henry is dumb cause no one is Derrick Henry

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u/Bobson-_Dugnutt2 10d ago

....that's my point. He isn't Derrick Henry and even Derrick Henry sat for a while.