Key areas Alabama OC Ryan Grubb needs to improve in this fall

Nov 15, 2025; Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA; Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb watches the Crimson Tide stretch before the game with Oklahoma at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby

Ryan Grubb’s first season as Alabama football’s offensive coordinator ended with a playoff appearance, but the regular season was chaotic for the Crimson Tide offensively, especially toward the back end. 

Quarterback Ty Simpson battled through injuries as well as key players like running back Jam Miller and tight end Josh Cuevas. Kicking troubles left the offense in some difficult situations and erased the progress of the offense at times in tight games. 

Regardless, there are still a few things the Crimson Tide could not resolve on offense, and the pressure is on Grubb to clean these issues up. 

Establishing a consistent run game

In 2025, the Crimson Tide finished 15th in their conference in rushing yards per game. Establishing a solid run game was a goal that Grubb had coming into the 2025 season, and after the way Alabama failed to run the ball last season, this goal needs to become a priority. 

If the run didn’t work initially in games last season, Grubb would abandon it and rely on the passing game to get the Crimson Tide over the hump. Sometimes, this worked, but it is almost impossible to make a deep playoff run without a running game.

An unbalanced offense that is pass heavy may not be the ideal situation for a quarterback that has not started a college football game yet, and it took time for Simpson to adjust last season. With Austin Mack and Keelon Russell competing to become the starter, Grubb needs to find ways to balance out the amount of pass or run plays called and not put Mack or Russell into a situation where they have to become superheroes.

Grubb spent one season with the Seattle Seahawks before getting fired and joining Alabama in the following months, and part of the reason Grubb was fired was because of the lacking run game the Seahawks had. Fast forward to now, the Seahawks are in possession of another Super Bowl, and the pressure from the Crimson Tide fanbase is only going to rise if the second-year coordinator fails to revive the Alabama running game.

Rotating less on the offensive line

The biggest issue that Alabama had last season was that Alabama could not get movement up front. A new wave of offensive linemen joined the program and are ready to step up. 

The offensive line is going to have four new starters this season. Returning starter Michael Carroll took advantage of the opportunities he’s had thus far and showed he is capable of playing right guard or right tackle, but that depends on what Grubb decides to do with the combination of offensive linemen he puts on the field.

Grubb needs to focus on finding the best combination of offensive linemen and not send out an infinite number of starting combinations through the season. Former Alabama QB AJ McCarron was vocal about this on an episode of The Dynasty: A Podcast on the Alabama Crimson Tide. 

McCarron said that the offensive line is the “biggest brotherhood in all of college football” and believes a starting rotation of multiple guys hinders rapport and communication up front.

Head coach Kalen DeBoer mentioned this spring that Alabama does not want to fall “into the trap where you’re moving guys around” and affecting chemistry and continuity.

Getting Ryan-Coleman Williams the ball in space

Coleman-Williams is one of the most talented wide receivers in college football today, and even though he dropped a few crucial deep balls last year, he still showed that he can make people miss in space.

In 2025, Grubb did a decent job of designing plays for Coleman-Williams to get the ball in space, but he went away from Coleman-Williams in the second half of a few crucial games.

The junior wide receiver is set to take on a big role in this Alabama wide receiver room, and Grubb needs to get all he can get out of Coleman-Williams if Alabama is going to get back to the College Football Playoff. 

Using the SEC Championship game as an example, Grubb called two plays designed for Coleman-Williams to catch the ball quickly in the flat and do his thing. Those two quick plays resulted in Alabama’s highest-gaining plays of the afternoon as the shifty receiver dodged Georgia defenders and racked up extra yards after catch. These plays occurred in the first half, and Coleman-Williams did not touch the football again until the fourth quarter. He went the entire third quarter without a target.

“I think all the guys that are touch players, they can get the ball in space,” Grubb said after the 2025 SEC Championship game. “Certainly, Ryan is that kind of guy. Now, you got to have all the compliments to go with it. He is certainly a guy that can hurt you down the field as well, and those are the things you got to try to, you know, paint the picture for the defense of what you want to do and where you’re going to get the football, but Ryan can get it now at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield. He can get it down the field on a post route, so those are the things, intermediary routes and things like that. I feel like Ryan, when he’s playing his best, he’s in all of those positions.”

Coleman-Williams is the guy on the team that can give Alabama a spark whenever the offense needs one, and Grubb needs to get him the football in space and watch the magic happen. 

Using creative plays when the time is right

There is no debate that Grubb is on another level when it comes to creativity, but in the last few games of the season, it seems like these creative plays either came too early in unnecessary situations or came too late.

Fans have all seen the plays where offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor took a snap and ran with the ball or lined up at wide receiver for a screen pass, but the loss to Indiana in the College Football Playoff showed that Grubb and DeBoer need to have a little more discernment when it comes to taking risks.

Alabama had a fourth down from its own 34, and the Crimson Tide needed one yard. Alabama came out in Wildcat formation with their Daniel Hill awaiting the snap. He was the Crimson Tide’s biggest running back and the strongest ball handler on the team, but Grubb called a play that had Hill give the ball to Germie Bernard on a Jet Sweep, resulting in a swarm of Indiana defenders wrapping him up in the backfield and driving him back. Instead of letting the strongest player in the running back carry the football against a nasty Indiana front seven, Grubb got cute with the Wildcat Jet Sweep play. This left Indiana with great field position and an opportunity to score. The game was not even remotely close after this series of events.

The issue is not the fact that Alabama went for it on fourth down because the Crimson Tide were one of the best in the country at converting on fourth down. What this shows is that even though Grubb has a great offensive mind, there are some cases where it does not take a genius to hand the ball to your 244-pound running back and tell him to get one yard.

An instance of when Grubb waited a bit too long to get into his bag of tricks is the SEC Championship game. With around four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Alabama trailed by 21 points, and Grubb called a play where Simpson fired a short pass to Bernard, and Bernard threw a lateral pass to an open Hill to pick up a first down and more. It was a great play, but it came a little too late in the game for it to receive the praise it deserved. The Alabama offense struggled that entire game against the Bulldogs, and when the offense needs a spark, a play like this could have given them the spark earlier in the game.