Alabama took care of business in the boiling Tuscaloosa heat Saturday against East Carolina, pummeling the Pirates 48-10.
Here is the first postgame edition of the good, bad and ugly for the 2026 Crimson Tide football team.
The good
Keelon’s playmaking. It was a solid debut for Keelon Russell through the air as Alabama’s starting quarterback, going 18-of-30 for 256 passing yards and no turnovers.
But the standout trait of his performance on Saturday was his ability to create plays off-script and improvise, either finding a receiver downfield or taking off and running, evidenced by his 86 rushing yards and touchdown on the ground.
It wasn’t always perfect for Russell, as he did miss on a couple of throws and showed a lack of ability to slide and protect his body, something he said he’ll do better moving forward. But his pocket awareness and consistent success at scrambling and either finding an open man or running for yardage were especially impressive, even more so considering this was his first college start.
“I think especially — taking off and going to make plays. Balancing that with keeping the eyes down the field, I think he’s just a tough guy to defend,” head coach Kalen DeBoer said. “We’ve always been quarterback-driven by what we can do, and I think the sky is the limit for him, for sure.”
It was a great first glimpse at what Russell could provide for this Alabama team as the showrunner, and the future looks to be considerably bright for him moving forward.
Run game success. After the Crimson Tide’s run game completely fell apart at the end of last season, there was a lot of pressure on the coaching staff this offseason to deliver a much better ground attack.
It was a welcome sight for Alabama fans on Saturday to see a successful run game, as the team totaled 227 yards and all five offensive touchdowns on the ground. Establishing the run was a point of emphasis early on, with 14 run attempts in the first quarter alone.
The results looked very promising, as Daniel Hill showed strong physicality on his nine attempts for 47 yards and two scores, 5-star freshman EJ Crowell made several men miss and showed impressive elusiveness all afternoon with seven carries for 37 yards, and freshman Tras’Shawn Brown had a 68-yard touchdown run called back on a ticky-tack holding call.
“We gotta be able to rotate,” Hill said. “I feel like we’re five to six deep. We think anybody can get in there and make plays for us.”
Seeing some balance on offense was great to see for Alabama fans, considering how pass-reliant the team became at portions of last season. There will still be questions ahead in the run game against better opponents due to the overall inexperience in the room, but it was a strong start on Saturday.
RCW’s bounceback. It wasn’t exactly the best of starts for wide receiver Ryan Coleman-Williams. He already had two drops by the first play of the second quarter (one being negated due to a penalty) and was seemingly continuing the same issues that plagued him last season.
But he ended up bouncing back strongly and filled up the stat sheet with five catches for 130 yards, including a 58-yard catch where he showcased his signature elusiveness, and again did so on a 27-yard punt return. His ability with the ball in his hands continues to be among the best in the country, and he seems to be forming a strong connection with Russell.
“At the end of the season, you’re gonna be looking at the best duo in the country,” Russell said.
There’s going to be some concerns with Coleman-Williams considering the drops, and he seems to tend to unnecessarily jump to catch the football. But he still put together a very impressive game, and there’s no telling how video game-like the numbers could get if he catches the ball more consistently.
Physical run defense. Kane Wommack spent a lot of spring and fall camp talking about how the Crimson Tide defense would be more physical up front, signaled by adding massive d-linemen such as Devan Thompkins and Terrance Green.
The results panned out very well for Wommack’s defense in game 1 as East Carolina amassed just two rushing yards, the lowest amount Alabama has allowed to an FBS team since 2021. The Crimson Tide defense also racked up three sacks and five tackles for loss, and made things consistently difficult for Pirates quarterback Mitch Griffis. The stifling defense especially came through on third down, not allowing a single conversion in nine attempts.
The lower-quality opponent may make observations seem slanted, but it was clear how physical the Alabama defensive line was up front, stifling run holes and creating consistent pressure against the pass. It was an encouraging sneak peek at how successful this defensive front can be moving forward.
The bad
Lack of deep ball attack. As mentioned earlier, Russell did a consistently excellent job at scrambling and finding himself more time for an option downfield, and he often took off and ran.
The extra time allowed Russell more time to find options downfield or get open, but it seemed like he wasn’t ever able to find an open man deep and launch it, instead having to settle for a checkdown or a scramble.
The checkdowns and runs still yielded positive results, but Alabama is also naturally a more athletic and overall talented team. So it’s a bit surprising that the Crimson Tide offense wasn’t able to capitalize on that gap and have a deep passing attack.
Moving forward into SEC play, there isn’t going to be as big of a talent gap as the East Carolina’s of the world, so the catch-and-run and scrambling success won’t consistently happen. It’s ideal for an offense to have a solid balance in the passing attack at all three levels; otherwise, it simply becomes more difficult to find open receivers.
The ugly
Mental mistakes. This was apparent from the first play of the game in that it felt like Alabama wasn’t very prepared, but was able to get away with it due to the talent difference.
From the very first offensive snap, when there was an illegal motion penalty on Coleman-Williams, the team consistently looked in distress pre-snap. Later that same drive, the Crimson Tide turned a 2nd and 16 into a 2nd and 21 after a delay of game, which stalled the drive further and resulted in settling for a field goal.
The very next offensive drive alone saw an illegal forward pass by Russell, a false start on guard Will Sanders on the next offensive play, and then a delay of game after a touchdown on the extra-point attempt due to the Crimson Tide having only 10 players and a lineman running onto the field late.
Alabama then had to burn a timeout somehow on the very first play of a drive in the second quarter after the offense lined up and looked around in confusion. Two more Alabama timeouts were burned in the second half to avoid a delay of game, a problem from last season that inexplicably continues to plague the Crimson Tide. There was also miscommunication between Russell and Coleman-Williams on a motion that led to a lost fumble.
Again, Alabama was able to dominate to a 48-10 win because of the talent difference between these two teams. But there were a lot of mental mistakes made by the Crimson Tide offense, ones that really shouldn’t even be happening in any game. Those mistakes may not matter in lower-level games, but they could really come back to bite in bigger showdowns.
“The biggest takeaway is just operational speed, in and out the huddle, I’ve gotta be a little bit better on that,” Russell said. “I’m gonna criticize myself on that, just because I don’t look at myself as a freshman. I look at it as a veteran.”
There can be good explanations for what happened. It’s the first game of the season and Russell’s first game starting in college, and there may have just been communication gaps while adjusting to all that. But when problems like these plague you at points in the last few seasons and it immediately happens in the first game, it’s one that can cause concern among a fanbase.
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