No. 13 Alabama football opened its season with a 48-10 win over East Carolina as first-year starting quarterback Keelon Russell tallied 335 total yards and led eight scoring drives.
Few have entered their first start at Alabama with as much hype as Russell, and the sophomore and former 5-star recruit showed flashes of dual-threat brilliance for much of the day. Russell led the Crimson Tide in rushing with 86 yards on 11 carries and also scored a touchdown that put Alabama ahead 38-7 with 14 seconds to go in the first half.
“God blessed me with some legs, so why not use them,” he said postgame.
Russell’s improvisation kept several drives alive as the Crimson Tide entered the break having scored on each drive of the first half. There were hiccups after the break, though.
Along with the dynamic ability, Russell showed his inexperience. Alabama struggled after halftime, punting the ball twice and fumbling it once, as Russell and receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams botched a handoff. The sophomore began the game completing 11 of his first 16 passes but completed just two of his next eight in a lackluster third-quarter showing.
He also took several hits as the Crimson Tide’s overhauled offensive line experienced growing pains, prompting the sophomore to escape the pocket. Head coach Kalen DeBoer said that he and his staff will address sliding and taking care of Russell’s body with the young quarterback ahead of the team’s SEC opener against Kentucky next Saturday.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer walks into the stadium before the game against ECU on Sept. 5, 2026, at Bryant-Denny Stadium. (CW / Noah Bruce)“We gotta make sure he’s playing for the long haul,” he said of Russell. “We’ve gotta use his feet. You can see we’re gonna be aggressive with him, use it [his athleticism] to our advantage, help our offense be as good as we can be [and] maximize our potential.”
Coleman-Williams notched his highest receiving yardage since a 165-yard performance against Wisconsin last September with 130 yards on five catches. Still, he dropped a pass on a would-be chunk play in the second quarter and another on a free play that would have resulted in a touchdown had he completed the catch.
The Pirates jumped offsides, thus nullifying the Saraland native’s blunder. Russell defended his star receiver after a productive yet tough performance.
“At the end of the season, you’re going to be looking at the best duo in the country,” he said of himself and Coleman-Williams.
While Russell’s debut as a starter was the main headline entering the game, focus was placed upon the Crimson Tide’s rushing attack after it tallied 104.1 yards per game in 2025, the 125th-most in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The team addressed the trenches by hiring new offensive line coach Adrian Klemm to resurrect its ground game, and in Klemm’s first game with the team, Alabama showed improvement from a year ago on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide scored five touchdowns via the ground, recorded 227 rushing yards — including 125 in the first half alone — and averaged 4.6 yards per carry, compared to a pedestrian 3.4 yards per carry it averaged in 2025. True freshmen running backs EJ Crowell and Trae’shawn Brown ran in for their first collegiate touchdowns, while junior and starter Daniel Hill rumbled for two scores on 5.2 yards per carry.
Brown’s score capped off a cleaner drive from Russell and the Crimson Tide’s offense to end the third
Alabama running back EJ Crowell (#13) runs the ball to score against ECU on Sept. 5, 2026, at Bryant-Denny Stadium. (CW / Hannah Grace Mayfield)quarter and begin the fourth, as the surprise of the offseason continued his impressive beginning to life in Tuscaloosa. Crowell, a former 5-star recruit, missed much of spring and fall camp but impressed in limited action.
Russell called the team’s running game in the win “phenomenal.”
Alabama will return to action next Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky, facing off with the Kentucky Wildcats in the Crimson Tide’s SEC opener. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on ABC.
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