Alabama set to host elite transfer running back on visit, per report
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Alabama made it to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals despite a dormant running game in 2025 that it’s already working to revive in 2026.
The Crimson Tide are expected to host star transfer Hollywood Smothers, who is coming off a breakout season at North Carolina State, for a visit to entice him to come to Tuscaloosa. Smothers’ agent told CBS Sports on Friday afternoon of the running back’s plans to visit Alabama, with the transfer portal officially opening on Friday.
The agent also revealed in the CBS Sports report that Smothers has a visit planned to Florida State, which ironically began Bama’s struggles on the ground this fall with that Week 1 upset of the Tide in Tallahassee. FSU piled up 230 yards rushing on Alabama on that late August afternoon, while the Tide only managed 87 yards on the ground. Bama’s rushing attack nightmare continued right through to the bitter end on New Year’s Day, when it managed only 23 yards rushing compared to Indiana’s 215 in getting eliminated.
This problem is what Alabama hopes a player like Smothers can fix in 2026. Smothers finished with 939 yards rushing this past season, averaging a massive 5.9 yards per carry, with 6 touchdowns. He also led the ACC this season in average yards per game with 85.
Alabama’s leading rusher this season, Jam Miller, barely finished with over 500 yards. He totaled 504, averaging just 3.9 yards per carry. The Tide’s lack of a consistent rushing attack in 2025 made their offense one-dimensional, and it all finally caught up with Bama in the Rose Bowl blowout loss to the Hoosiers.
The Tide hope to change all that next fall, and somebody like Smothers would be a perfect addition to remedy all those running game woes from 2025.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
