Word on the street this past week was Alabama sophomore running back Corey Grant was planning to transfer to another school to finish his college career. The news comes on the heels of the departure of long time Alabama running back Demtrius Goode.
With the quick departures of running back depth Alabama true freshman Demetrius Hart is now the likely third running back in the rotation.
The multiple departures may not be random and unconnected to the arrival of Dee Hart. The five star US Army All American running back from Orlando Florida finished out an amazing year of football.
Hart put up some epic numbers for his Dr Phillips High football team. He amassed 2,224 yards rushing and had 3,394 all-purpose yards and fifty touchdowns. That included 12 consecutive games with 100 or more yards rushing.
A Rivals four star rated running back he was rated the number one all-purpose back in America. While I'm not sure what criteria are used to judge "all purpose" I'm sure the 3,394 yards had something to do with it.
Hart initially committed verbally to the Michigan Wolverines over Alabama and others for his services. Thankfully for Tide fans Michigan went in the tank this fall and the resulting firing of coach Rich Rodrigez sent Hart back out looking for a home.
His high school classmate and close friend Hasean Clinton-Dix had already verbally committed to Alabama and with Alabama being his second choice before committing earlier Alabama was well positioned to come after him again.
On January 8th in the US All-American game Hart gashed the Western defense for 69 yards in the third quarter alone leading to a 13-10 come from behind victory for the East. Overall Hart had 101 yards on only eight carries. Harts performance was the highest rushing total in the games history. Hart also won the games MVP trophy.
Alabama fans were delighted when he announced publicly that he would sign with the Crimson Tide. Many tide fans may not have known much about him when the day started but his All-American game performance was breathtaking.
Rivals took notice as well assigning Hart a 5-star rating.
Hart, a good student was on course to graduate early and he wanted to get to campus early It was not a sure thing for Hart but once again the stars aligned correctly and he arrived during the winter of 2011 and prepared for action.
When spring practice started scuttlebutt coming from practice reports indicated that Dee Hart was making noise in his first college practices. In the A-Day game he had many backs to compete with for limited carries but still managed to score the day's only rushing touchdown when he took a hand off for an electric 17-yard touchdown.
After A-Day it became clear Dee Hart figured prominently in Alabama's offensive plans this season. With the departures of two running backs, one of which was experienced Harts roll will have to expand.
Even if neither of the more experienced Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy are injured Alabama will need to count on Dee Hart to be ready to play at a high level to spell them. The roll could expand depending on Harts ability to take on a third down roll similar to former Alabama runner Roy Upchurch.
If injuries occur to the more experienced backs Dee Hart could easily find himself standing behind the quarterback for the opening plays of the game. That is a lot of responsibility for a kid who just skipped his high school prom.
Time will tell how prepared Dee Hart is to take on a leadership roll. Trent Richardson immediately took his fellow Floridian under his wing to show him the ropes. To pass on the hard earned lessons that Trent learned from Mark Ingram, who learned them from Glenn Coffee.
Hopefully for the Alabama running game the beat will go on no matter who totes the rock.
Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna
No comments:
Post a Comment