The Alabama Crimson Tide are still looking to fill the void left behind by running back Jam Miller’s injury last week. Granted, that injury isn’t expected to be a long-term issue, but in the short term, Kalen DeBoer and the rest of this coaching staff have to make sure the run game is productive in his absence.

Right now, there are three main candidates, which includes Richard Young, Daniel Hill and Dre Washington. Alabama also has former top-100 recruits Kevin Riley and AK Dear in the running back room, but there’s an expectation that the first three will be the main rotation on Saturday when the Crimson Tide take on Florida State.

During the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday, DeBoer was asked how he feels about Alabama’s running back room, including second-year back Daniel Hill. The first thing he brought up was the experience element that Miller brought — and will eventually bring again — to the position.

“I think the thing with Jam is there’s just more reps,” DeBoer told reporters. “There’s more just experience that he brings to the table. And so there’s just a higher level of trust and kind of understanding what it’s gonna look like on game day. And you don’t have that as much with the rest of these guys. It doesn’t mean that they’re not doing some nice things on the practice field.”

Experience, especially in Alabama’s program and this system in particular, is one thing Miller holds over every other running back on the roster. In three seasons, he’s gotten 622 snaps and seven starts. Of those, 454 snaps and all seven starts came in 2024. He’s also earned 240 touches, which has turned into 1,319 total yards (1,092 rushing, 227 receiving) and 12 touchdowns.

Washington saw similar numbers at Louisiana. He totaled 244 touches, 1,498 total yards (1,343 rushing, 155 receiving) and 11 scores while playing 528 snaps and getting six starts in three seasons, but that was against lower-level competition. Young, Hill and Riley were all on Alabama’s roster last year, which give them an advantage over Washington, but they’ve only combined to get 137 snaps and seen 69 total touches, which they’ve turned into 271 yards and three touchdowns.

DeBoer’s comment on Hill was interesting, to say the least.

“But Daniel Hill, in particular, as you asked, he’s more versatile, considering he’s over 240 pounds, than I think what people would probably think, DeBoer continued. “He’s very natural. I think he’s got some quick feet in the hole, and he can also catch the ball out of the backfield. So it’s just playing with a consistency. He’s pretty assignment-sound, pretty good that way. It’s just a matter of him being able to do it at a high level every single day. And again, we won’t know that until we get into the season here, just like with the other guys.”

Here’s how I took that comment… Hill knows what to do, and he has the talent to do it. He just doesn’t always put it the effort to do it at a high enough or consistent enough level. Everyone knows I’m a big believer in Hill. I’ve raved about him all offseason, including back in the spring when sources were telling us how impressive he looked in closed practices and scrimmages. But consistency is key in everything that you do.

Alabama offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb alluded to something similar earlier this month when discussing Hill.

“I think Daniel has started to run like the back we saw in the spring,” Grubb said back on Aug. 19. “Early in camp, I thought he was a little bit slow to come to that.”

These comments make sense.

Based on what I was hearing back in the spring, Hill was the most impressive running back outside of maybe Miller. That, along with his versatile skillset, was the main reason I was projecting him as Miller’s backup through the beginning stages of fall camp. Then when he hadn’t generated the same buzz, I started to question why. Consistently playing at a high level seems to be something he’s working on.