Alabama’s first fall scrimmage brought some unfortunate news for the Crimson Tide’s running back room.
Sophomore running back AK Dear suffered an injury during Thursday’s scrimmage, while highly touted freshman EJ Crowell did not participate.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer confirmed the two situations following the scrimmage, saying Crowell will miss a few practices but is not expected to miss any games.
“EJ did not scrimmage today,” DeBoer said. “He’ll be out for a few practices here. He won’t miss any games down the road.”
The news on Dear is less certain.
According to DeBoer, Dear was having an impressive scrimmage before suffering the injury. He had also scored a touchdown before leaving the field.
“AK did suffer an injury,” DeBoer said. “He actually was having a nice scrimmage, scored a touchdown. We’ll evaluate him and figure out what the severity of that.”
Sources indicated Dear was one of the most impressive running backs during the scrimmage, making plays as both a runner and receiver before the injury.
That makes the situation one Alabama will be watching closely.
Crowell was already unavailable Thursday, and DeBoer confirmed the five-star freshman will miss additional practices. While the fact that Crowell is not expected to miss a game is encouraging, the freshman’s continued absence is notable after he missed significant time during the spring.
The Crimson Tide still has Daniel Hill, Kevin Riley, Traeshawn Brown and Khalifa Keith available in the running back room, but Alabama certainly doesn’t want to lose Dear for an extended period.
For now, the biggest question is simply how serious Dear’s injury is.
Alabama will continue evaluating the sophomore, while Crowell works his way back to the practice field.
With the Crimson Tide placing an increased emphasis on improving its running game in 2026, this is certainly a situation worth monitoring closely as fall camp continues.
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