The Alabama single-season and lifetime rushing yard records were shattered by Derrick Henry. In addition, he leads all former Crimson Tide players with the most rushing yards in a single season and throughout his career.
Does Henry become the best running back in Alabama football history as a result? During his appearance on the podcast “The Pivot,” Henry was asked that very subject.
“I simply believe that I left my mark when I had the chance,” Henry remarked, “as I didn’t play my first year here.” It was all right in my second year after that. It was, in my opinion, mediocre. I didn’t have the same year as the following year.
“And I thought Shaun Alexander set the stage for running backs.” Bobby Humphrey included. I could talk forever about the running backs for Alabama. Because of his body of work and accomplishments, I always argue that Shaun is the best. He also lacked the players that coach (Nick) Saban brought in with first-round picks during that entire period at Alabama. It is simply absurd. That’s why I will always believe Shaun to be the best Alabama running back of all time.
Since he began the Saban era, Mark Ingram is the best of it. That’s who it began with. He was the first to win the Heisman Trophy and he truly ignited the running back movement, so I’ll just state that I left my mark and leave the voting to the fans.
In addition to winning the Heisman Trophy, setting Alabama’s single-season record, and leading the Tide in rushing throughout his career, Henry made history in 2015 when he ran for an SEC single-season record of 2,219 yards.
Alexander had the Alabama career record at the time with 3,565 yards, but Henry’s impressive season increased his total to 3,591 yards in three years.
However, for the course of his four-year career, Alexander ran for more yards. The 315 running yards Alexander accumulated in three bowls that would be credited toward him today are not included in his record since the NCAA did not include bowl stats in official statistics until 2002.
Alexander would thus have 3,880 yards of rushing experience in his career.
With 3,843 yards from 2017 to 2020, Najee Harris is currently the Crimson Tide’s all-time leading rusher. However, he is still behind Alexander’s unofficial tally.
With 291 running yards in a 26-0 victory over LSU on November 9, 1996, Alexander continues to own the school single-game record.
Alexander ran for 9,453 yards in nine seasons after being selected 19th overall by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2000 NFL Draft.
In 2005, Alexander achieved his highest total when he scored 27 rushing touchdowns and ran 1,880 yards, setting an NFL record. As the Seahawks advanced to Super Bowl XL that season, he was named the NFL MVP.
By the 13th game of his fourth season in 2003, Alexander had surpassed Wilbur Jackson to become the Alabama graduate with the most NFL running yards.
After Alexander’s most recent game, Henry took over as the Crimson Tide’s all-time NFL rushing leader. Henry’s career yardage total now stands at 9,502 after he ran for 153 yards in the Tennessee Titans’ 28–20 victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars on January 7, the last game of the 2023 season.
Henry became the eighth player to exceed 2,000 running yards in a season in 2020 with 2,027, surpassing Alexander’s 1,880-yard performance as the best by a former Alabama player.
When the Crimson Tide won the BCS national title in 2009—Sabatian’s third season as coach—Ingram became Alabama’s first Heisman Trophy winner.
2009 saw Ingram exceed Alabama’s single-season record of 1,471 yards, set by Humphrey in 1986 (excluding 159 yards in the Tide’s Sun Bowl victory over Washington, 28-6). Ingram ran for 1,658 yards in 2009.
In 2011, Ingram became the first Alabama running back selected in the first round of the NFL Draft since Alexander. He would go on to accumulate 8,111 rushing yards in his professional career.
Running backs Trent Richardson (2012), Josh Jacobs (2019), Najee Harris (2022), and Jahmyr Gibbs (2023) of the Tide were the next to select Ingram in the first round. 2016 saw Henry selected in the second round. Additional Alabama-born running backs selected in the Saban era’s draft class are Glen Coffee (2009), Eddie Lacy (2013), T.J. Yeldon and Jalston Fowler (2015), Kenyan Drake (2016), Bo Scarbrough (2018), Damien Harris (2019), and Brian Robinson Jr. (2022).
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