What Grubb feels needs to happen for Alabama football’s offense to return to early season form

© Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Alabama football had one of the best offensive attacks in college football earlier in the season when the Crimson Tide rattled off four straight ranked wins.

Ty Simpson was a Heisman favorite, Jam Miller was leading a solid rushing attack and the Tide’s wide receiver unit was looking like one of the best in college football.

However, those days now appear to be in the distant past.

Simpson was not a Heisman finalist, the Tide rushed for negative yardage against Georgia in the SEC Championship and Simpson was out of rhythm with his receivers in the Tide’s last few games. Alabama’s offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was asked Tuesday what needs to happen for the Tide to get back on track.

“Well, obviously, we got to get a rhythm early in the football game,” Grubb said. “We’re capable of that. In the SEC championship, besides taking a knee at the end of the half, I think we were in 19 plays in the first half of that game. Nine of them were runs. We just weren’t effective at all. So, it starts with just moving the chains on third down. I think simply put those are the things that we did really well early in the season and in the mid-point when were we on that four-game run against some tough opponents. The consistency in that, we’re more than capable. We got great kids that play hard, smart. They’re more than capable of getting that done. So, excited about the challenge.”

The Tide is hopeful it can have some of its top offensive players back Friday when Alabama takes on Oklahoma in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Miller is not listed on Alabama’s current availability report and is expected to play against the Sooners after missing the SEC Championship. Alabama’s starting tight end Josh Cuevas is listed as questionable.