TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— It can be rare to get complete honesty from the podium in the Alabama press room, but Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb was willing to share Monday morning his opening message to the offensive coaching staff.

"I said, no media line bulls---, but we gotta focus more on the run game and it’s got to get fixed," Grubb said. "We had such a good groove happening, and I thought LSU took us out of a couple things that we had early in the football game that, we popped a couple runs early and got behind the sticks, and too many third-and-longs, too many second-and-longs to be able to be out there. And that helped put us in a position on third-and-XL that you don't want to be in, and especially against a pass rush like that. So for us, one of the huge focuses is is how do we get the run game back? And what do we got to do to get the ball in the right people's hands?"

Alabama had a 100-yard rusher in the first SEC game against Kentucky back in Week 2 when Daniel Hill rushed for 104 yards. That has not happened since, and only twice in the next six SEC game has a Crimson Tide player rushed for more than 50 yards.

For the last three games, Alabama hasn't even reached 80 total rushing yards as a team.

In the win over LSU, freshman running back Trae'shawn Brown ran for nine yards on the first play of the game. He combined for 26 yards on his next 10 carries in the game.

Brown and Hill were the only running backs to get carries for the Crimson Tide on Saturday. Grubb said he wishes he could give freshman EJ Crowell 30+ carries a game, but Crowell has not been able to stay healthy for Alabama this season. Sophomore AK Dear is also trying to get healthy according to Grubb.

"My heart breaks for both those kids because they're tough as nails, and they've been going through it, and they work their asses off every week to get back on the field, and we're hoping," Grubb said. "We hope every week, and I know, again, those guys are just working so hard to be back out there. They've done a good job to stay in preparation and do their homework and do the walk-throughs and do everything they're supposed to do, and EJ tried to give it a go before the game and just had the brace on and just really wasn't capable of doing that. So we're hopeful. Obviously, we're lucky that they're not season-ending injuries or anything like that. They're just still working to get healthy."

Alabama proved the last two games that it can win without a balanced offensive attack. Quarterback Keelon Russell can put the offense on his back and go out and win the game. While that might work the next three games against Vanderbilt, Chattanooga and Auburn, it won't work in the postseason. It's not an ideal plan at any point, especially with some of the injury issues Russell is dealing with.

"Schematically, you’ve got to figure out the things that you want to do, how you can attack, and apply them," Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said. "We’ve got to keep making the strides. I think, just in general, staying on the football field so we can keep the run game going. The number of plays we’re running overall is limiting who’s getting touches, and obviously, that limits the number of run plays we can have. So, staying on the football field."

Alabama only ran 53 plays on Saturday compared to 81 for LSU. Part of that is the good field position the offense got a few times, but it's also partly a chicken and the egg situation. If the Tide could run the ball better, it would be on the field more as it sustained drives. If Alabama was on the field more, it would have more opportunities to run the ball.

This week's opponent in Vanderbilt is a chance for the Crimson Tide offense to re-establish the ground game. The Commodores rank 64th in rushing defense and 69th in total defense. Alabama should have more opportunities for offensive success, but it will come down to execution on both sides of the ball.

"This is gonna be a team that’s gonna try to keep the ball, use time of possession to limit your possessions, as well," DeBoer said of Vanderbilt. "So, we’ve got to flip the script and make sure, on our end, we’re executing start to finish.”