Alabama’s 2009 signing class, considered one of the most complete in college football history, was loaded at the running back position.

Coming off an unbeaten regular season in 2008, the Crimson Tide used momentum on the recruiting trail to bring in five-star Trent Richardson, the top player out of Florida, and Eddie Lacy, a four-star ballcarrier to be used as the perfect complement to budding superstar Mark Ingram, to highlight an impressive haul.

The duo combined for three BCS national championships during their tenure and a pair of 1,000-yard seasons. A unanimous All-American in 2011, Richardson took home the Doak Walker Award after breaking Ingram’s single-season program rushing record with 1,679 yards and 21 touchdowns.

The following season after Richardson had left early for the NFL, a fourth-year junior Lacy ended his SEC career with consecutive memorable performances rushing for 181 yards and two touchdowns during a league title game win before capping his stint in Tuscaloosa with the offensive MVP award in the BCS Championship game.

In his only year as a starter, Lacy rushed for 1,322 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2012.

Alabama’s 2009 RB class

  • Trent Richardson, 5-star: 3,130 career yards, 35 TD (Taken 3rd overall in 2012)
  • Eddie Lacy, 4-star: 2,402 career yards, 30 TD (Taken 61st overall in 2013)
  • Mike Marrow, 3-star: Transferred to Eastern Michigan in 2010

As Alabama’s 1-2 punch in 2011 without Ingram, Richardson and Lacy combined for nearly 2,500 yards rushing as two of the nation’s best backs.

Mike Marrow was the lone running back signee in 2009 that eventually got away. Buried on the depth chart behind Mark Ingram, Richardson and Lacy, the three-star out of Holland, Ohio transferred to Eastern Michigan as a redshirt freshman in 2010 before landing at Nebraska in 2011.

It should be noted that Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, members of the SEC’s best backfield of all-time in 2007, both signed with Arkansas in 2005 as athletes. Once they arrived on campus, it was obvious that head coach Houston Nutt would use both in the running game.