Jam Miller sees progress in the Alabama football run game. What's the next step?
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To Geno VanDeMark, Alabama football success in the run game is personal.
The Crimson Tide offensive lineman loves Jam Miller and the rest of the Alabama running back room. VanDeMark said he wants Miller “to have 1,000 yards every game,” a showcase of “great dudes and great players.”
“But if we don’t do our jobs, we can’t eat,” VanDeMark said. “So it does upset us.”
In Alabama’s 23-21 loss to Oklahoma, Crimson Tide backs had 108 sack-adjusted rushing yards and averaged 3.7 yards per carry, significantly better than the 65 sack-adjusted yards Alabama had against LSU the week before.
Miller saw a difference.
“Our O-line got way better. … Running backs, we take the blame for it,” Miller said. “We need to do better at pass protection, just hitting the holes right, reading the O-line and just getting what we can get.”
Improvement is at the center of everything Miller wants to see as Alabama prepares for Eastern Illinois and as Auburn lingers.
It’s been at the center of his message to Daniel Hill, who led Alabama backs with 60 rushing yards on 15 carries with two scores. Miller encourages Hill to “be humble,” to “keep doing your thing.”
That’s Miller’s overall message to an Alabama run game sitting third-worst in the SEC with 108.7 rushing yards per game and 3.39 yards per carry.
“We just got to improve,” Miller said. “We just got to get better. Of course during the game, there were some run holes that we missed. We just got to work on it, be patient in our runs and just hit it.”
Alabama will take on Eastern Illinois at 1 p.m. CT Saturday Nov. 22 on SEC Network+.
Colin Gay covers Alabama football for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at cgay@gannett.com or follow him @_ColinGay on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Next steps for Alabama football run game Jam Miller feels is progressing
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