As the number one name in college football, Alabama can go coast-to-coast (and beyond, say to Hawaii) in recruiting, but the Crimson Tide had to look only a few miles south of campus to Tuscaloosa’s Hillcrest High School to find Brian Robinson.

In his third season, the 6-1, 226-pound Robinson has moved up to back-up running back to Najee Harris in the Alabama offense. Robinson has rushed 76 times for 356 yards (4.7 yards per carry) and 4 touchdowns this year. He’s also caught 10 passes for 117 yards.

As Robinson and his Bama teammates returned to the practice field this week, he said he thinks the Tide running game is coming around at the right time. “We’re making progress every week,” he said. “We had a slow start, but we always had the ability to run the ball. We just had to bring our offensive line group together as a unit and get them on the same page.

“I feel like we’ll continue to make strides.”

Robinson said that he and Najee Harris “have a lot of similarities, but I don’t think we’re the same runner. We both have great abilities, but I think Najee is a little bit more patient than I am. In open space we’re different; he likes to hurdle and he’s shifty. I’m shifty, but I’m more physical insofar as drawing contact. We have a lot of similarities, but I don’t think we run the same.”

Brian Robinson looks for contact

Because Alabama practices with first team offense (both Robinson and Harris are with the first group in practices) against the first team defense, Robinson has an appreciation of the Tide defenders. He said the secondary has made the most strides. “They’ve stepped it up a ton,” he said. And that the linebacking corps has “been playing a lot better every week. “They are freshmen and young and just growing into the Bama factor. They’re coming together more as a team.”

They need to be, because when Alabama next steps on the Bryant-Denny Stadium field, the team coming out of the opposite tunnel will be LSU. The teams — Bama No. 1 and LSU No. 2 in the Coaches Poll, the Tigers No. 1 and the Tide No. 2 in the Associated Press rankings — it will be the regular season game of the year. Both teams are 8-0. Kickoff on Nov. 9 will be at 2:30 p.m. CST with CBS televising.

Both Alabama and LSU have been at or near the top in offense this year, and Robinson is aware of the Tigers talent. As for a comparison to Bama’s offense he said, “They have some nice receivers, a pretty solid running back, a great quarterback.

“But comparing them to our roster, I really can’t. I’d have to see them play against our defense in order to compare them to a high caliber offense like ours.”

It wouldn’t be a press opportunity with Bama players without questions regarding Tide quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa, recovering from surgery on a high ankle sprain that kept him out of last week’s Arkansas game, and Mac Jones, who replaced Tagovailoa.

Robinson said, "I knew Mac Jones had the ability all along. Most people probably didn’t see the abilities in him because they haven’t watched enough on him, but I’ve been here and Mac’s been here since I’ve been here. We’ve been here the same amount of time. I knew he was ready with his abilities, it’ was just his mental side of it he had to cross. Once he locked in and focused on the game it was like playing high school ball all over again."

He also said that Tagovailoa’s spirits are “just positive. Tua’s always positive. He never questions why anything like bad happens. He just moves forward and continues to work on whatever he needs to work on and control what he can control at the time. And I feel like he’s doing a good job with that mentally.

“He’s helped [Mac Jones] tremendously. He’s let him know what he was going to have to go in and do and what it’s going to take for him to complete the game with a positive outcome. Making sure Mac just knows all the details as far as stepping up at the starting quarterback role and just helping him in those areas."

This year’s Alabama-LSU game is naturally being compared to the 2011 game in Bryant-Denny when No. 2 Bama hosted the No. 1 Tigers, a game that LSU won, 9-6, in overtime. Robinson grew up just a few blocks from The University campus and watched the game on television with his family at home.

He expects this year’s game to have “the same type atmosphere, if not greater.

“But the difference is, I’ll be a part of it this time.”