Alabama Football: Najee Harris must pick up slack while Tua Tagovailoa recovers

It wasn’t pretty, but Alabama football rolled to a victory over the hapless Tennessee Volunteers in Week 8 despite losing Tua Tagovailoa.

Alabama’s win over Tennessee in Week 8 didn’t come without a cost as their star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa left the game with a high ankle sprain. However junior running back Najee Harris made sure their offense didn’t miss a beat by racking up over 100 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns in Bama’s 35-13 victory over Tennessee.

Tennessee started the game off as strong as they’ve played all year against a ranked opponent by scoring early as well as picking Tua off before knocking him out of the game in the first half.  However, whatever momentum the Vols may of had in the early parts of the game quickly disappeared as Alabama continued to put up unanswered points.

Now, clearly it’s never a good thing when your star quarterback gets hurt, but perhaps there’s a silver lining to the situation Alabama currently finds itself in.

Assuming Tagovailoa‘s injury proves to be just a minor sprain that only keeps him out for one game then it came at the right time as next week’s game is against a truly awful Arkansas team who poses as little of a threat as possible, having lost all four of their conference games so far this season. The Razorbacks even suffered the embarrassment of losing at home to a non-Power Five opponent in San Diego State.

With this in mind, Alabama should view next week’s game as an opportunity to see how they can perform without having their Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback in the starting lineup and no Jalen Hurts to back him up.

In all likeliness, much like this week’s game against Tennessee, we’ll see a whole lot of Harris who looks more ready than ever to take center stage in Tuscaloosa. Remember, this is the same five-star running back who seriously considered transferring because of his lack of playing time.

Fortunately for Alabama fans, Harris stuck around and decided to finish his college career with the Crimson Tide and now with Tua on the sidelines and no experienced backup ready to fill in for him Harris will likely have as good a chance as any to become the clear No. 1 go-to playmaker on Alabama’s offense.

Hopefully Najee’s 105 yards last night against the Vols is a preview of things to come while Tua is recovering from his high ankle sprain.