Jalen Hurts is single-handedly breathing life into the Oklahoma running game.
The Sooners quarterback and former Alabama star has already eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark largely because he had 99 yards on one drive. Hurts had runs of 30, 16, 1 and 52 yards on a 5-play scoring drive that covered 2:36 as Oklahoma went up 7-0 on UCLA. He had 103 yards by the time he had his fifth carry of the night. According to ESPN, he tied the most yards ever by a single player on an opening drive.
By comparison, Alabama had 25 carries for 76 yards and a TD in a 47-23 win at South Carolina. After the game, coach Nick Saban addressed the playcalling and execution on offense.
“We need to have more balance on offense,” Saban said. “It’s great that we’re a great passing team. I’m happy with that and I think we’re doing a great job of featuring some of our best talent on our team by what we’re doing. But I also think from a team standpoint, we need to run the ball effectively as well.”
Saban said one of the reasons Alabama chose to pass is because of the South Carolina alignment on defense. But it’s also an issue the Crimson Tide have faced before.
“I’m not apologizing for that because we continue to make plays, but I don’t think you can totally depend on that,” he said of the passing prowess. “I think last year we got to where we were so good at doing that, we didn’t do other things well. We played really good teams at the end and we couldn’t do enough other things to be effective.”
According to @ESPNStatsInfo Jalen Hurts’ 99 rushing yards on the opening drive are the most rush yards by any player on an opening drive of a game over the last 15 seasons #BoomerSooner
— Ed(ward) Carmichael A!!schoff (@AschoffESPN) September 15, 2019
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
