Alabama football’s ‘biggest sin’ of 2025 that must be fixed to avoid another disappointment

With the Alabama football program preparing for Week 1 of the regular season against the East Carolina Pirates on Saturday, Sept. 5, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb would reveal a goal that the team has this upcoming year. While Alabama football quarterback Keelon Russell will lead the offense, Grubb would highlight a specific aspect of the running game that he wants tos ee fixed.

Speaking to the media on Monday, Grubb was asked what he wants to establish with the rushing attack in Week 1, responding immediately that one of the Crimson Tide’s “biggest sins” last season was “negative yardage runs.”

“You want to try to open up some opportunities, either pull the defense apart and get some long seams for the running back. But at the same time, you know, for us, I thought one of our biggest sins last year was the number of negative yardage runs that we had,” Grubb said. “You know, for us, just the availability of keeping the ball consistently moving forward and eliminating the negative yardage runs is going to be step one.

“That’s a very low bar,” Grubb continued. “And I guess what I’m saying there is the communication piece that we’re on the same page and we don’t have busted A and B gap assignments. And for us, that’s going to be priority one. If they do that and take care of the line of scrimmage and work vertically, I think they’re going to have all the results that they want to see.”

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At any rate, it remains to be seen if the Alabama football team, with its offensive line and running backs, could limit the negative plays as it starts with East Carolina, as the Crimson Tide no doubt has major expectations this season.