San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Crimson Tide’s Harris eager to play near home
Alabama running back Najee Harris, standing on the sideline during last year’s national championship game in Atlanta, glanced up at the decorative banners scattered around the stadium. He spotted one promoting the 2019 title game in the Bay Area. 2018 rushing yards for Najee Harris, up from 370 as a freshman.
“That was the first time I knew this game would be here,” he said. “It was crazy.”
One year later, Harris strolled into SAP Center in San Jose on Saturday with his Crimson Tide teammates. They’re back in the title game, this time facing Clemson on Monday at Levi’s Stadium. That means Harris, the nation’s No. 1 recruit
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Weather:
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B9
two years ago at Antioch High, is home again.
He returns as part of a potent, three-headed running back platoon for Alabama. Najee Harris, senior Damien Harris and junior Josh Jacobs have combined for 2,136 rushing yards this season, a tidy complement to the high-powered passing game led by quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Some context: Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor led the nation with 2,194 yards on 307 carries. Alabama’s threesome collectively has 356 carries, spread between Damien Harris (139), Jacobs (109) and Najee Harris (108).
This falls in line with head coach Nick Saban’s longtime blueprint. He prefers not to lean on one workhorse, a luxury he can enjoy because Alabama seems to land the most acclaimed running back recruits nearly every year.
“We always like to have two or three guys at that position who can play,” Saban said. “It keeps everybody fresh and healthy rather than having one guy who carries the ball a lot every game and then gets worn down as the season goes on.
“We’ve been fortunate to have three guys this year who have made a real impact at that position — different guys in different games.”
This is no surprise in some ways, given Alabama’s tradition of pounding opponents on the ground. Derrick Henry and Mark Ingram (the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner) both played for Saban in Tuscaloosa, and previous quarterback Jalen Hurts rushed for more than 850 yards in each of his first two seasons.
Now, with Tagovailoa at the helm, Alabama also fills the air with passes. The Tide rank sixth in the country with nearly 326 passing yards per game — imagine Bear Bryant’s reaction to that — creating space for Harris, Harris and Jacobs to operate.
“We air the ball out a lot, throw to guys on the perimeter, and naturally that frees up the running game,” Damien Harris said. “We’re able to have more explosive runs. It kind of backs people up; there aren’t as many defenders in the box.”
As for Najee Harris, he’s savoring this uncommon West Coast trip; Alabama hasn’t played west of the Central time zone in his two years at the school. This will be his first game in the Bay Area since Dec. 3, 2016, when Antioch fell to Monte Vista-Danville in the North Coast Section Division 1 championship game.
This stage is just a tad bigger.
Harris finds more significance in the location, knowing he will have a rare chance to play