Welcome back to college football's third and final installment of Superman vs. kryptonite.
Alabama-LSU has been the day Tigers fans dread the most and not only because of LSU's five-game losing streak against Nick Saban's Crimson Tide. This annual game now reveals how much former coach Les Miles' offense failed Leonard Fournette, a player Saban called "probably one of the most dynamic running backs that has played college football for a while."
The vast majority of defenses don't stop Fournette. He is a freakish athlete whose 126.1 yards-per-game career average ranks third in SEC history behind only Herschel Walker (159.4) and Emmitt Smith (126.7). Fournette's 6.42 yards per carry in his career trails only Bo Jackson (6.62) and Todd Gurley (6.44) among SEC running backs.
Defenses may hold Fournette in check for a while, but his quick feet and powerful burst eventually produce chunks of yards. That is, unless he's playing Alabama.
In two games against the Crimson Tide, Fournette has run for 110 yards on 40 carries (2.8 yards per carry). He averages 6.7 yards against everyone else.
Alabama has twice held Fournette to under 4 yards per carry. Nobody else has done it once in games when he carries the ball more than 15 times, as he did both times against Alabama.
Incredibly, 60 percent of Fournette's carries against the Crimson Tide go for 2 yards or less. Against every other team, Fournette gets held to 2 yards or less on 32 percent of his rushes.
LSU was so predictable on offense last year that Fournette went from averaging 193 yards per game on the season to gaining 31 yards on 19 carries against Alabama -- and 18 of those yards came on one play. At that rate, Fournette would have needed 118 carries vs. Alabama to match his season average.
"We're going to do some things with Leonard that he's able to do," LSU interim coach Ed Orgeron said at his weekly news conference. "Whatever happened last year is the past. We have a great game plan for Leonard, but I will say this to you: It's going to be very tough moving the football on this defense. It's one of the best defenses I've ever seen."
Alabama is giving up 2.18 yards per carry this season. That's on pace to be the lowest in the Football Bowl Subdivision since TCU (1.72) in 2008. The last team from a major conference with an average that low was Michigan (1.87) in 2006.
Since running games became more sophisticated with dual-threat quarterbacks, this type of shutdown run defense just doesn't happen anymore. Yet Alabama leads the next-closest rush defense, San Diego State, by 20 yards per game. That would be the largest gap between No. 1 and No. 2 since 2008, when TCU beat Alabama by 27 yards per game.
The Crimson Tide are positioned to win the FBS rush defense title for the fourth time in six years. That has never happened in major college football history dating back to 1937, the first year on record with the NCAA. No team had ever won three in five years before Alabama's current run.
It's not like the Crimson Tide have altogether avoided good rushing teams in 2016. Alabama beat Texas A&M (No. 5 in yards per carry), Southern California (No. 20), Kentucky (No. 30) and Western Kentucky (No. 31). LSU poses a threat at 6.74 yards per carry (No. 2), but only if Fournette doesn't find himself once again running against a crimson and white wall.
"It just goes to show that regardless of how talented the back he is, he's got to get some help," said former NFL general manager Phil Savage, executive director of the Senior Bowl and a radio analyst on Alabama games. "Fournette needs help. Without a semblance of a legitimate passing attack, Alabama can absolutely commit an extra defender to defend the run. But also, Alabama physically won the battles at the line of scrimmage last year."
Alabama defenders made contact with Fournette before he crossed the line of scrimmage on 13 of his 19 carries last year, according to Ross Dellenger of the Baton Rouge Advocate. Only once did Alabama first make contact with Fournette at 3 yards or more beyond the line of scrimmage.
Since Orgeron took over, new offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger has used more wide receivers in formations to try to create space. This week, Orgeron stressed the need to protect quarterback Danny Etling to make some downfield throws and get Fournette the ball in space to run.
"With Les Miles and [former offensive coordinator] Cam Cameron, LSU seemed content to condense their formations to between the hash marks and try to sledgehammer the football between the tackles and beat Alabama in their own game," Savage said. "LSU is now trying to create more room and space but also present the idea that they're willing to throw the football. The biggest key is can LSU make Alabama at least defend the idea of a passing attack?"
LSU may have the best backup running back in the country in Derrius Guice, who filled in when Fournette missed three games with an ankle injury. Guice has 621 yards (8 yards per carry) and seven touchdowns.
"As supremely talented as Fournette is, I promise you Alabama has just as much concern about Guice," Savage said. "When they spread the field with different personnel groupings, Guice is a terrific player in space. They've even had both guys on the field a couple times."
The clock is ticking on Fournette's career at LSU. The NFL will come calling soon. An LSU loss Saturday would essentially mark Fournette's last meaningful college game with championship aspirations at stake and lower LSU's SEC record to 12-9 in Fournette's three seasons. Saturday certainly marks Fournette's last shot at Alabama.
Twenty-one times Fournette has gotten at least 15 carries in a game. In those 21 games, he failed only three times to crack 100 yards -- once against Arkansas (he had 91 yards) and twice against Alabama.
There is, of course, no shame in struggling against Alabama. The Crimson Tide have allowed eight 100-yard rushers in a game since 2008. The next closest SEC school, LSU, has given allowed players to amass 100 rushing yards or more in a game 25 times.
| Player vs. Alabama | Rushing yards | Year |
| Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State | 230 | 2014 |
| Tre Mason, Auburn | 164 | 2013 |
| Dominique Swope, Georgia Southern | 153 | 2011 |
| Nick Chubb, Georgia | 146 | 2015 |
| Trey Edmunds, Virginia Tech | 132 | 2013 |
| Todd Gurley, Georgia | 122 | 2012 |
| Tauren Poole, Tennessee | 117 | 2010 |
| Jeremy Hill, LSU | 107 | 2012 |
Fournette, though, is "the real deal," said Savage, who believes Fournette belongs in the same conversation with Ezekiel Elliott and Gurley as recent high NFL Draft picks at running back. And players who are the real deal don't want to go out with a three-year whimper against the nation's best.
To conclude the over-the-top Fournette/Superman analogy: Kryptonite essentially renders Superman useless, but it's also why Superman is so compelling. If Superman was invincible all the time, he would be a boring character without any real conflict.
Fournette has faced conflict beyond Alabama. Every move he makes on the field is under a microscope because he was good enough to play in the NFL a while ago.
One of the most heavily insured players in college sports history, Fournette has faced the "junioritis" questions of how hard to play while risking injury as an unpaid college athlete before the NFL.
"You're darned if you do and darned if you don't," Savage said. "If you sit out, you're going to get crucified, and if you go half in and try to pick your spots, then you get crushed for not playing hard all the time. I think it's very hard for the player and the coach to navigate. At least against Ole Miss [last week], Fournette looked fresh. He looked motivated. He looked like a guy who didn't care what people say and felt like, 'I'm just going to play.'"
Whether Fournette can bottle that up and finally conquer his kryptonite is another story. Sometimes, even Superman needs help.