You would have been forgiven if Alabama’s win Saturday over East Carolina looked like it had taken a few pages out of a different coach’s book – think Gene Stallings.
While Alabama’s 48-10 win eventually turned out to be a solid – not spectacular, but solid – debut for redshirt freshman quarterback Keelon Russell, there was just as much fan attention being paid to how Alabama performed along its offensive and defensive lines. At the half, Alabama had scored on every offensive drive, with touchdowns coming on all but one of those trips, and East Carolina, which finished 9-4 a year ago with a couple of quality wins over FBS bigger-weights, looked like it simply didn’t belong in the discussion.
And that’s largely because it didn’t. As we profiled in our game preview, ECU rosters only two defensive linemen over 300 pounds. On a day that was, at least for the first hour or so, arguably the hottest football game ever played in Tuscaloosa, once the Pirates’ starting defensive line started to run out of gas, there was no help coming from the bench. ECU’s second defensive line averages about 275 across the board, which is FCS level.
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Flipping it around, Alabama’s defensive line is bigger than a year ago, even without the services of the injured Jeremiah Beaman. Alabama was able to rotate five tackles for much of the game without any appreciable drop-off in play. After suffering from a post-halftime hangover, Alabama got back on its game in the fourth quarter and simply snuffed this one out.
The running back group, which had been oft-maligned for the better part of a year, looked more like a Stallings stable, too. Playing without A.K. Dear, Alabama put up good numbers across the board, and those numbers would have been stellar had it not been for a long Trae’shawn Brown touchdown called back by a holding call that, from all angles, was an official’s gaffe. Bama’s top two performers ended up being a resurgent Daniel Hill, who was quicker in his cuts and who also appears to have learned how to fall forward compared to a year ago, and true freshman Ezavier Crowell, who flashed next-level ability several times on the day while putting up 37 yards on 7 carries and scoring his first collegiate touchdown.
Combine the running backs’ performance with that of the offensive line – only one sack allowed, awarded technically on an intentional grounding call against Russell, and a total of 227 yards gained rushing and 5 touchdowns – and it’s too early to label anything as “fixed,” but it’s certainly a nice start.
And then there was Russell. He was Alabama’s leading passer, obviously, but was also the leading rusher thanks to his ability to scramble for gains. But the numbers in both categories weren’t what they could have been. Russell carried 13 times for 86 yards and a touchdown, and his passing numbers – 18-of-30, 60.0%, 256 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD – were lessened a bit by his hesitancy to cut loose downfield on some throws as well as trying to stay a bit too patient in the pocket at times rather than running to green space. Having said that, Russell came into the game with almost no experience at all, and everything he did Saturday showed the potential for improvement.
Alabama will open SEC play on the road next week at Kentucky, which is about as good a scenario as Russell and Kalen DeBoer could ask for. The Wildcats won’t be an easy opponent, but Alabama, across the board Saturday, looked a few ticks better than even we expected. The potential is there.
On a day when the oppressive heat threatened to send everyone to the medical tent, Alabama had just one heat-related issue on the field (that player, WR Rico Scott, later returned to the game) while at the same time wearing down and finally suffocating a quality opponent. Those are good qualities to show, this early in the season – and it’s something Alabama can build upon in its quest to put out a more physical style of play.
Here’s the Five-Point Breakdown for Alabama-East Carolina:
1. Russell’s biggest enemy at the moment is processing speed. We didn’t necessarily expect Russell to have issues with taking chances downfield, given that most of the criticisms around him this offseason and fall camp centered on his turnover count. Too many scrimmage interceptions, they said. It appears there may have been a “camp mindset” and a “game mindset” after all. What we saw Saturday suggests Russell knows full well the importance of not carrying the label of a careless gunslinger. But we will need to see continued improvement in quick decision-making.
The RPO game at this point looks like Russell’s security blanket, because when he knew he had to make split-second decisions on the snap – think the quick slant to Rico Scott that could have gone for a ton had Russell led Scott’s route just a little better – he could simply fire and forget. There were too many pump fakes and hitches in the delivery, though, to feel comfortable with in the long term, and that may have been the function of breaking in a few new wide receivers, which we will touch on later. In all, it was a solid debut, and better than most even in recent Alabama quarterback history, but it’s fair to say with all the adjacent hype to this coming-out party, the fans expected more. How Russell grows over the next 2-3 weeks will be crucial both to his short-term and long-term development.
2. It’s too early to declare the running game fixed, but this was light years ahead of 2025. The offensive line still is working through some technical issues – and one of the things we shouldn’t gloss over here is that Russell got too much early pressure in his face at times – but given how much turmoil the line has found itself in over the past eight or so months, we’re going to give them the attaboy they deserve. In general, we liked the middle push in the running game a lot. New center Racin Delgatty had a solid game and does appear to be more aggressive than Parker Brailsford was (and no, Delgatty didn’t hold anyone on Brown’s TD run, no matter what the umpire says), and communication up front looked, in general, cleaner. Plays and line calls seemed to come in from the sidelines earlier in the play clock, which allowed the line not to look like it was still talking it out a half-second before the snap. Guards Will Sanders, Michael Carroll and Mal Waldrep all did a good job working together and with Delgatty on zone combo blocks.
We especially liked what we saw from LT Jackson Lloyd, who might not be as big or strong as Kadyn Proctor, but he’s certainly more athletic and more nimble. We didn’t get enough of the second OL to really evaluate, but it seems like we’re going to see less open substitution along the line this year with the new OL staff, and we’re fine with that. Alabama’s safety net in the running game appears to be the middle zone read, and Daniel Hill made those plays work by consistently finding a way to get 5 yards rather than 2, which was an issue last year. The one caveat here is we’re not sold on ECU’s defensive line being all that good, and Kentucky will present a much more formidable test.
3. The defensive line looks improved, but let’s talk about the linebackers, too. The one self-back-pat we will give ourselves here is that we’ve been consistently positive about the potential of Alabama’s linebacker group, which up the middle, is all new. Now comprised of Virginia Tech transfer Caleb Woodson and lot of younger players, it wasn’t always perfect against the Pirates, but Alabama played with confidence and aggressiveness, and perhaps just a touch more speed. Woodson’s debut drew raves from onlookers, as Alabama managed to find itself a 6’3”, 240-plus pound thumper who can run like a safety.
Just as big was Alabama getting a solid debut from Luke Metz, and Q.B. Reese was all over the place when he was in the game. If you can find it on video, there’s a play late in the game where Reese took on a blocking running back in an RPO and absolutely annihilated him. Outside linebacker Yhonzae Pierre got a pick-six while dropping into coverage, adding something else to the list of things to think about when opposing offensive coordinators have to design ways to keep him from causing complete havoc. Pierre also got a sack. True freshman Xavier Griffin doesn’t know the whole defense yet, but his elite speed was noticeable. Up front, Terrance Green showed that he’s probably a better fit for this scheme than was Tim Keenan, as Green was able to create consistent pocket pressure. Alabama used Isaia Faga off the bench a good bit and he appears to have solidified his body in the weight room. Alabama also got good contributions late from Steve Mboumoua, Edric Hill and Fatutoa Henry.
4. The kicking game was quietly stupendous and bodes well for bigger games. PK Lorcan Quinn kicked off nine times, getting touchbacks all nine times, and put two kicks into the seats behind the end zone. Conor Talty, who beat Quinn out for the placement job, hit all of his PATs and two Fgs, all no-doubters. New punter Alex Asparuhov averaged 52.0 yards per punt, hitting two kicks that just kept rising and driving after they left his foot. The return game looked solid for a first game, and the punt coverage unit – we can’t tell anything about the kickoff coverage unit yet, and might not be able to if Quinn keeps it up – looked well-designed. Alabama’s issue in special teams over the years has been one of consistency, and it was especially a problem in 2025. A lot of boxes looked like they had been checked Saturday.
5. Nits to pick: Were the timing issues in the passing game due to Russell’s inexperience, or is there something going on at WR/TE? It’s probably a bit of both, to be frank, but we’ve been worried about the impact Noah Rogers’ injury had on the wide receiver corps and today didn’t make us feel any better. Ryan Coleman-Williams dropped the first pass he saw, which was good for the internet meme community if nothing else, but he then caught 5 passes for 130 yards and had a carry for 9 yards; he’ll be fine. Of greater concern is finding someone else who can get open in the pattern. Lotzeir Brooks had to play a lot as an outside receiver with Rogers out, even though his max value is probably limited to the slot. Rico Scott had a decent day with no drops, but we need to see him work open more.
Probably the unexpected bright spot of the day was Derek Meadows, who had two nice catches on balls that weren’t particularly in his bread basket, and his ability to use his height and length could pay dividends in the coming weeks. We liked what we saw from the tight end group in the running game, but we believe this group has more to give as potential receiving targets. The entire passing game can’t be built around Coleman-Williams’ ability to work back to Russell on scrambles.
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