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Jam Miller and Justice Haynes got off to a blistering start Saturday as Alabama football’s latest running back duo combined 156 yards on only nine carries in a 63-0 win over Western Kentucky.
They’re of similar size and skill, as UA coach Kalen DeBoer has noted, explosive if not imposing from a size standpoint. But there’s a bigger, stronger back in the Alabama stable trying to work his way into more playing time: Daniel Hill (6-foot-1, 241 pounds), a freshman from Meridian, Mississippi, who offers a powerful, downhill running style that could become a nice complement to Miller and Haynes.
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“The vision for him is to be a guy that can move the pile, be the physical hammer and not the nail. … He’s a guy who has the frame and size to look like some of those old-school Alabama running backs who can get downhill and move the pile,” UA running backs coach Robert Gillespie said. “But he’s also a guy with versatility. He was a quarterback in high school and has really good hands. He’s not your typical downhill, bruising guy, but he’s still got a way to go just from learning Xs and Os and how to play without the football.”
Playing without the football at the running back position is code for being a more effective blocker. Gillespie said Hill’s size and strength allows him to be effective in pass protection with less technique than smaller backs.
“He can be wrong. His technique doesn’t have to be as sound as a Kevin Riley, because Kevin’s a smaller guy who has to have technique as soon as he walks in the door,” Gillespie said. “Whereas a bigger back can absorb some of that and still reset his hands and feet and make up for it. So that’s what I’m seeing so far. His technique isn’t there but he’s a big, physical dude….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/notes-alabama-football-rb-hammer-213526892.html
Author : The Tuscaloosa News
Publish date : 2024-09-04 21:35:26
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