Once an embarrassment of riches, Alabama’s depth at the running back position is beginning to dwindle. During his Monday news conference, Nick Saban provided injury updates on two Crimson Tide backs, stating that sophomore Jase McClellan will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury while freshman Camar Wheaton also is dealing with a knee injury.
McClellan exited this past weekend’s game against Ole Miss after picking up his knee injury early in the second half. Through five games, the sophomore has 40 carries for 191 yards and on 40 carries as well as 10 receptions for 97 yards and three touchdowns. He also returned a blocked punt 33 yards for a touchdown.
Wheaton, the top-rated back in this year’s class, has not featured for Alabama this season. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound back ran for 3,731 yards and 48 touchdowns during his high school career at Lakeview Centennial in Garland Texas.
“He hasn’t practiced,” Saban said. “He had a meniscus [injury] or whatever, so he’s kind of week-to-week, but he’s not been cleared medically to practice at this point.”
Without McClellan and Wheaton, Alabama is currently left with three active scholarship running backs in starter Brian Robinson Jr. as well as Trey Sanders and Roydell Williams. Robinson leads the team with 379 yards and six touchdowns and is averaging 5.19 yards per carry. Williams leads the team averaging 6.42 yards per attempt and ran for a total of 154 yards and a touchdown. Sanders, the top back in the 2019 class, has 83 yards and a touchdown and is averaging 4.15 yards per carry.
"Jase is a very good player," Saban said. "Did a great job as a runner, as well as a blocker as well as very good special teams player. We have to replace him in a lot of areas on our team, but we do have confidence in Roydell, and I think he'll do a good job. Trey Sanders is going to get more opportunity now and he's got to be able to step up and continue to make progress as well."
Saban also said Alabama will explore using players from other positions to help provide depth in the backfield moving forward.
"If some guy has experience playing that position, we'll see how they might be able to develop and be an emergency guy," Saban said. "We've got several guys in mind but we'll kind of see how it goes."
No. 1 Alabama (5-0, 2-0 in the SEC) will travel to Texas A&M (3-2, 0-2) for a 7 p.m. CT kickoff on Saturday. The game will be televised nationally on CBS.
