Alabama Football: Don’t sleep on Brian Robinson in 2019

Alabama football is always loaded at the running back position and Brian Robinson will be a top option in 2019.

Running back has always been a talented position for Alabama. It started with Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, and he was immediately followed by Trent Richardson. After them, the Tide had Eddie Lacy, TJ Yeldon, Kenyan Drake, Derrick Henry and at least half a dozen others. I think you get the point by now.

Heck, Alabama is so talented at running back that Alvin Kamara had to transfer due to lack of carries.

Last season, the Tide had three running backs get the majority of the carries with Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs and Najee Harris. The former Harris and Jacobs are both now in the NFL, so that opens up a ton of possibilities for a potential replacement.

We all expect this to be the season of Najee. He’s the most experienced back, and he always performs well when he’s given a chance. However, I don’t believe this will be a one-man show with Najee. He is incredibly talented, but so are the other backs on the roster.

In comes Brian Robinson Jr., a junior with the Tide. Robinson only has 87 carries under his belt, but hopes are high that he will be a change of pace for Alabama as they try to expand their running game this season.

Najee Harris is an elusive back, and he has the agility to make people miss in the open field. However, Robinson is the wrecking ball that forces his way through defenders and always manages to fall forward for extra yards.

That being said, Robinson is still able to make men miss between the tackles with a simple juke. He doesn’t have the full repertoire like Harris, but he doesn’t need all the moves. He mostly needs to be able to get to the second level and power through tackles.

I don’t want to spend too much time focusing on only having 437 career rushing yards and four touchdowns for two reasons. Firstly, he has only seen time in garbage minutes. In those times during the game, practically everyone knew that Alabama was going to run out the clock. Because of that, they loaded up the box to try and stop him. I’m expecting for him to have bigger gains once you have to account for Tua possibly throwing the ball.

Another reason not to worry about what he has done in the past is because of what Jacobs did last year. He, too, had under 1,000 yards before becoming a focal point of the offense. For me, it’s all about what he can do next year as opposed to what he has done before.

One spot of his game that will have to grow is the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. When you want to change the pace, this is an incredibly valuable skill. He currently doesn’t have a single reception in a game, but that’s because we haven’t run any plays that would ask him to do that in the regular season. If he comes out against Duke with the ability to catch the ball, he will have to get on the field.

I know that the backfield will be just as loaded in 2019 as it has ever been, but there’s no reason to believe that Robinson won’t be a key piece of Alabama’s offense this year.