Good: Alabama averaged 8.6 yards per passing attempt in 2014, No. 12 in the FBS and one spot better than where it finished in 2013. Not so good: the Tide averaged just 5.1 yards per rushing attempt, a fine number for most schools but only good enough for an FBS finish -- No. 28 -- that ranked as Alabama's worst effort in that department since 2008.
So it's no surprise that at the 2015 SEC Media Days on Wednesday, Nick Saban and Alabama's players made the Tide sound like a team that's making even more of a commitment to the ground game than they usually have.
"It's going to be a challenge for our team to reestablish the identity that we would like to play with," Saban said at the podium. "We want to be more physical, tougher on the line of scrimmage, be relentless in the way that we compete."
Saban later suggested the team might scale back on the up-tempo offense favored at times by the Tide in 2014, saying that "if we're going to be a no-huddle team like we were last year, I think we have to manage the season better ... I think at the end of the season last year, we ran out of gas a little bit."
Those comments were echoed by Tide senior center Ryan Kelly, who described the team's spring camp as an effort to get back to being the kind of Alabama "who can run the ball against everyone."
"We feel like when we're running the ball great, no one can stop us," he said. "[In spring] we got back to being balanced ... every great team has a great offensive line that carries the offense."
Of course, the biggest beneficiaries to an improved offensive line and a renewed emphasis on a slowed-down, ground-and-pound offense would be the Alabama running backs. Senior Kenyan Drake, back from the leg injury that robbed him of most of the 2014 season, said the Tide's tailbacks will have to do their fair share of bettering the Tide rushing attack.
"We left a lot of yards on the field," Drake said, noting that the backs had been working on the "details" of running the ball: understanding where holes might develop, when to bounce (or not bounce) a run outside, etc.
"We have to be a little more patient this year," he said. "It's not just about breaking tackles."
Drake said the team's "general motto" heading into the 2015 season is "to finish" -- not just to finish its runs with a few extra yards, but to finish the season with the national title that eluded it in 2014.
For all the talk of who's going to take the reins under center for the Tide, if they do bring another national title back to Tuscaloosa, it's likely going to be as much a return to the bash-your-head-in approach and a top-10 rushing game as anything that happens at quarterback.
