Alabama freshmen running backs show future of Tide’s run game is in good hands

Alabama football’s freshmen running backs EJ Crowell and Trae’shawn Brown showed up in a major way in the Crimson Tide’s win over East Carolina on Saturday.

Crowell scored the first touchdown of the season for the Crimson Tide when he bounced a run outside and beat the East Carolina defense around the edge to score his first career touchdown. Brown exploded for a long touchdown run in the third that was called back due to a holding call. Unfortunately for Brown, the touchdown coming off the board led him to finish the game with 15 yards on seven carries, while Crowell finished the game with one rushing touchdown and 37 rushing yards on seven carries.

Alabama freshman RB EJ Crowell was hungry for his first career rushing touchdown. 😤 pic.twitter.com/SDKKulwkqK

— Touchdown Alabama (@TDAlabamaMag) September 5, 2026

DeBoer talked about both backs after the game.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of positives that we’re going to find in it,” DeBoer said. “I think there’s a physical presence we’ll be able to, I’m sure, execute better, and some of it is that there was a lot of stuff we had to prepare for because we didn’t know exactly what we’d see. I think we got that dialed in as the first quarter went along, limiting what we had to tell the guys to be ready for. I thought they adapted well. Those guys, they had their moments. You could see EJ on the touchdown get around the edge, break a tackle or two. And I thought Trae’shawn, you know, unfortunately got called back, but the way that he hit that seam and was gone, you could kind of see what he’s capable of. Maybe a run early that was a negative play; can’t say that was really on him, that he had much of a chance. Like the way he runs. Think he runs with low pads. Both those guys have good feet in the hole, good balance. Good to get out there and get some experience. They’re gonna turn on the film, and I can think of an EJ run when TB was blocking for him that could’ve been a better block and probably would’ve been a much better play. So that’s just the stuff we’ve got to get better at.”

Crowell averaged 5.3 yards a carry against the Pirates.

Both backs are expected to receive carries against Kentucky this week when the Tide takes on the Wildcats in Lexington.