ALABAMA FOOTBALL: Tide’s Ingram never satisfied

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy was in the film room Sunday night when running back Mark Ingram walked in.

The day before, Ingram had carried the ball 28 times for 172 yards — including the game’s only touchdown on a 36-yard run — in Alabama’s 22-3 victory over Ole Miss.

He wanted to watch one play. Not the touchdown, which came on fourth-and-1 in the final minute of the first half.

Instead, the SEC’s leader with 10 touchdowns and its fourth-leading rusher (110 yards per game) cued up one of his few mistakes in the game. He failed to pick up a blitz and McElroy was sacked by Jonathan Cornell and Kentrell Lockett for an 11-yard loss.

“You know, that’s the only play I’ve been thinking about,” Ingram told McElroy. “That’s the only play that’s been bothering me. I’ve been thinking about that play since it happened.”

McElroy, who relayed the story to reporters this week, told him to shake it off.

“That’s what’s great about Mark — that he can look at the 15 great plays that he made in the game, and he can look at the one play and that’s the play that’s going to stick with him,” the quarterback said.

“That’s what’s driving him, that’s what’s going to make him continue to improve. ... That’s a big reason why he’s been so successful this year.”
Ingram admitted he was eager to see the film of that play.

“When you get the quarterback hit pretty hard or a play doesn’t work because you missed your blocking assignment, it kind of sticks with you more than those good plays,” the sophomore said. “I kept rewinding it and rewinding it again. ... I want to get better and take advantage of the mistake that I made.”

The running back from Flint, Mich., played a big part in last year’s offense in a supporting role behind Glen Coffee. He has been superb as the featured back this season.

“Mark’s a very good competitor. He’s got good speed and he’s got power,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “He’s built just like you’d like a running back to be, sort of low center of gravity. He is explosive.”

Ingram said he improved tremendously in the offseason. He credits running backs coach Burton Burns with much of that development.

“Last year he’d tell me some things, like how to press the hole, and I really wouldn’t understand what he was talking about,” Ingram said.

Burns took him to the film room and they watched Coffee and Ingram run similar plays.

“Just seeing some of the opportunities that I missed that Glen took advantage of,” Ingram said of the eye-opening experience. “I grew up a lot as a player learning how to press holes and get vertical and make one cuts and stuff like that. He taught me to grow a lot as a player.”

It’s hard to ask a running back what he sees or how he does it. But Ingram tried to answer what “pressing the hole” means. Believe it or not, part of it is giving the defense time to get in position.

“Pressing the hole is, you know, say you’ve got to run to B-gap,” Ingram said. “It’s pressing the B-gap as long as you can to get that defense to overflow and give your offensive line time to double team up to the linebacker. If you back cut too fast, the linebacker will cut back with you and the offensive lineman won’t have a chance to get to him.

“So it’s really helping him out, helping them get to their blocks, pressing the hole, helping them get to their blocks, helping set up the defense so we’ll have cut seams and cutback lanes and things like that.”

As a freshman, Ingram said he just wanted to hit the hole as soon as possible.

“You’re so fast to make a decision, but your freshman year you’re making those decisions too fast,” he said. “You learn that if you’ll be a little more patient here or a little more patient there, you’ll get 20 extra yards as opposed to just 10 yards. That step from freshman and sophomore year is just tremendous.”

That knowledge pairs nicely with the fact that Ingram, fast and physical, is a load to tackle.

“Going up against him in practice, you’ve got to bring your lunch,” Alabama cornerback Javier Arenas said.

“I think it would be a huge challenge in a game just because everything is heightened in a game atmosphere.”

Ingram is one of just three players in the country — along with Jacquizz Rodgers of Oregon State and Toby Gerhart of Stanford — averaging more than 100 yards per game who have scored 10 or more touchdowns.

That’s why Ingram called it “unacceptable” that Alabama didn’t score a touchdown from the red zone against Ole Miss.

“Whenever they get the ball in my hands around that area I just want to make a play, try to score a touchdown, get some momentum for the team,” Ingram said.