Alabama Crimson Tide RB Situation Features Inevitable Transfer

The Alabama Crimson Tide entered the 2026 college football season with one of the deeper backfields in football, but the running back depth chart we currently see will likely look awfully different next year.

Currently, Trae'shawn Brown and Daniel Hill are Alabama's two top running backs, and EJ Crowell, when healthy, is the No. 3. Kevin Riley has gotten 15 carries thus far this season, so he is the No. 4, and then you have Khalifa Keith and AK Dear at the back end.

I find it very hard to believe all of those halfbacks will be in Tuscaloosa in 2027.

We know that Keith won't be, because he'll be out of eligibility. But out of the remaining five, you can bet that at least one of them will enter the transfer portal.

Brown and Crowell are both freshmen, so chances are, they will both be significant pieces next fall. Especially considering just how much of a role Brown has already assumed.

The rest is a bit of a mystery.

Hill has one more year left and leads the team with 71 carries this season, but I could envision a scenario in which he gets pushed to the side during his senior campaign.

Riley is now in Year 3 and has accumulated a grand total of 84 rushing attempts throughout his Alabama career, so he may want to go to a school where he will earn some more playing time in 2027.

Then, there's Dear, the sophomore who entered the campaign with plenty of hype but has received just two touches this year.

Dear, to me, is the most obvious potential transfer. He is immensely talented, but he isn't getting any burn. It's clear that the Crimson Tide value Brown and Crowell far above Dear, and if Hill ends up staying for his final season, Dear will be cast aside yet again.

Such is the problem when you're a top-tier school always landing top recruits: you won't always have room for everyone, and Alabama's running back situation is the prime example.

I would be genuinely surprised if none of these guys enter the portal over the winter. It seems like an open and shut case.

Dear suffered that ankle injury back in fall camp and was never really able to regain his footing. It has to be frustrating for the former top recruit to get buried on the depth chart, and I would imagine he is already thinking about leaving.

It's probably only a matter of time before Alabama loses at least one of its halfbacks.