Although many Alabama Crimson Tide fans may not feel it at the moment, the 2014-15 season was a major success despite falling just short of an appearance in the College Football Playoff Championship Game Title Thing (at least that’s what I think it’s called?!).

The initial sentiment from naysayers of the program was that the game was passing head coach Nick Saban by, and his team had lost too much leadership to even sniff a shot at the title.

But Saban, just like any wise leader would, surrounded himself with fresh ideas in the form of offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, who subsequently led Bama to it’s most prolific offensive season.

Additionally, new leadership was provided by the likes of the unheralded Blake Sims, Landon Collins, Reggie Ragland and Trey DePriest.

But with the surprising loss to Ohio State in the playoffs, three of those aforementioned guys leaving campus, and the additional loss of the greatest offensive player of the Saban era, Amari Cooper, needless to say the underestimators will be out in mass against the Tide next season.

But one particular void may have been completely overlooked but was filled in emphatic fashion by the Tide’s next great superstar.

Severely Underrated T.J. Yeldon

For fans of great running back play, the Saban era has provided a host of all-time great SEC rock-toters: Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy. The fact that all three of those players were, at one time, on the same roster will undoubtedly go down in SEC lore.

Between the three, you had some of the most physical backs to ever suit up in Crimson and White. It was nothing to see the trio wear down defenses and force as many as nine in the box to stop the punishing attack.

For me, those were the glory days: Bama lining up in “12” or “22 personnel” and gashing defenses in the fourth quarter on the way to punishing, decisive victories. Even in defeat you had a feeling that defenses felt like they were glad to now have Bama behind them.

Along the way, Bama got away from that type of philosophy when former offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier was hired and installed his area-blocking scheme. That’s not to say Bama couldn’t get it done between the tackles as Lacy, in Coach Nuss’ first season, showed it was possible to derive power from a finesse scheme.

But the player who most exemplified being a natural zone runner — who could also get the tough yardage — was the highly touted, yet severely underrated, 6’2″, 221-pound T.J. Yeldon, my all-time favorite runner of the Saban era.

His ability to both dish out contact and make people miss was a lot different from, say, fellow junior Kenyan Drake, whose outrun or make-you-miss style can be downright breathtaking — but nowhere near physical.

But Yeldon drew the ire of most of the fan base due to his perceived fumbling issues. And despite back-to-back one-thousand yard seasons, many of the Crimson faithful championed for the uber-touted Derrick Henry to be the mainstay in the Tide backfield this season.

Although Henry did end up leading the team in rushing — by 11 yards — mostly due to a late-season injury to Yeldon which caused him to be held out of the Western Carolina game, the 6’3″, 241-pound back is not the type of runner one would associate with a behemoth his size.

Nope. Not at all! Henry is a one-cut-and go runner is every way, shape, form and fashion.

It’s actually quite remarkable to see; Henry may be the fastest back on the team. This is something that offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin undoubtedly notice as Henry was deployed on outside-zone runs almost 90 percent of the time.

And 90 percent of the time he broke off chunk gains on said runs. But most “pundits” associate Henry with physicality because they equate size with running style — opposed to actually, you know, watching football…

Henry is not a physical runner; you can darn near blow on him and he’ll fall down (get’cher mind right!).

That’s not to say he’s not a budding superstar, because he is, it’s merely shedding light that he possesses Bo Jackson’s size and speed with Michael Jackson’s between-the-tackle running ability. (Just kidding; sort of…)

But make no mistake about it; when you’re that big you can just about fall forward when being tackled whenever you want.

But ask yourself this question: How many splash plays have you seen from Henry when he completely annihilated a would-be defender?

Now ask yourself that same question regarding a physical runner like former University of Georgia superstar Todd Gurley — with whom Henry is often compared with; the difference is night and day.

Also one must take into account that against the four toughest defenses on Bama’s schedule, Mississippi St. (3.3 yards per carry), Ole Miss (2.2), Arkansas (3.6) and LSU (3.0), Henry was officially put on a milk carton — generating a longest carry of nine yards.

Furthermore, you ever notice how Yeldon received most of the goal-line carries? That’s not by happenstance.

So with Yeldon’s early declaration for the NFL draft, it leaves zone runners Henry and Drake — along with fellow zone guy Tyren Jones — to restore the physicality once seen at the Capstone.

That ain’t happening, people.

But with the signing of top recruit Damien Harris, a 5-star athlete according to the fine folks at 247sports, physicality is indeed coming back to Tuscaloosa and not a moment too soon.

Harris Film Room/Comparison

I got in on Harris late in the game because I put all my efforts into figuring out if Auburn signee — and Georgia Military College alum — Jovon Robinson had a chance at being flipped to the Tide.

The 6’0″, 240-pound Robinson is one of the most physical runners I’ve laid my eyes on here in the “Gate City of the South,” Atlanta, Ga,. But once I realized Robinson was set on being a Tiger, I focused my attention elsewhere.

That’s when I was told about Harris leaning toward the Tide over his home state University of Kentucky.

The 5’10”, 205-pound Harris reminded me, coincidentally, of another Tiger in the great Carnell “Cadillac” Williams as he played a ton more physical than his listed size. In fact, both are built more like 225-pound backs, but they still have great short-area burst and deceptive long speed.

BeastMode

But most importantly, they have the ability to wear down defenses and get stronger as the games wanes on, which is something I saw from Williams as he punished my Atlanta Falcons as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (when healthy), and something I saw recently from Harris in the Under Armour All-American game. (Here he took an inside-zone run, broke a tackle and punished a host of defenders.)

SpeedToTheEdges2

While Henry is a straight-line, Forrest Gump-like runner, Harris is a compact slasher who also has the ability to make people miss in the open field (as seen in the above sequence).

TDBurst

Harris has reported 4.40 40-yard dash speed, which would make him as fast as Drake and Henry; he consistently showed his breakaway speed in the Under Armour game.

With Cooper gone, it will be imperative for Kiffin to get back to running the ball more effectively; a complete run game will quickly get the offense up to speed. While Saban reportedly fell in love with explosive play-calling through the air, there’s no substitute for being able to control a game at the line of scrimmage.

Henry, Drake, Jones and now Harris can most certainly provide that. Welcome to the Capstone, Damien…


Note: Rising junior running back Altee Tenpenny is as talented as anyone on the roster, but you can’t help your team from the coaching staff’s doghouse. If he avoids off-field transgressions he, too, could bring physicality back to Tuscaloosa.