Last season, Alabama looked to get back to its old ways under Nick Saban as one of the country’s most physical offensive lines beefing up to one of the largest in the country.
The unit which boasted three players over 340 pounds was a far cry from the line that helped take Washington to the national championship game, which has wowed some of the staffers new head coach Kalen DeBoer brought over from the Huskies.
Former Washington staffer and now Alabama wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard put it best during an appearance on Tide 100.9 on Wednesday where he hilariously described the one place he’s seen this sort of size before.
“With our offensive line, I’ve never seen this kind of meat on the offensive line,” Shephard said. “I’ve only seen this kind of meat when I’ve gone and purchased a cow to put some meat in my freezer.”
Despite the impressive size, Alabama’s rushing attack was amongst the least productive in the Saban era and was inconsistent at best at the start of the year. By season’s end, the unit was able to mesh in time for the Crimson Tide to make a push to the College Football Playoff.
But this season, with three returning starters accompanied by a running back room that’s as deep as it has ever been at Alabama, the offense will be committed to moving the ball through the trenches.
“When you’ve got these kind of guys up front blocking for talented players like we have here in this running back room, we’d be fools not to run the ball,” Shephard said. “Again, for a long time over the years of my coaching career, it’s been, ‘Hey, sometimes use the pass to set up the run.’ And this will be the first time where I can really feel we can use the run to set up the pass concepts.”
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Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77
