Alabama staffer shares Mark Ingram’s message to 2025 team: ‘Why not us?’

Alabama football recently hosted a special visitor. Mark Ingram stopped by practice and delivered a message to a hungry 2025 squad that missed the College Football Playoff in Year 1 under Kalen DeBoer.

Ingram, the first Heisman Trophy winner in Alabama program history, wants players to ask “why not us?” while not getting ahead of themselves and maintaining focus on the task at hand.

“…Don’t get tired of doing the small things right,” Ingram said in a clip posted by assistant director of player personnel Tony Jones. “And why not be great? Why not us? They talking about this team, they talking about that team — F all that, man. Why not us?

“Somebody gonna have a legacy. Why not us? Somebody gonna go out there and win the ‘ship. Why not us? So take it one day at a time, one rep at a time, one practice at a time. You are already competing against each other. Iron sharpens iron. So y’all should be tight.”

Ingram knows something about Year 2 magic. His career began in 2008, Nick Saban‘s second season in Tuscaloosa. The ’08 Alabama squad played for an SEC title after an undefeated regular season. In Ingram’s second year, the 2009 team broke through as the standout running back won the Heisman en route to UA’s BCS national title.

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.