It can be a long season and, if you look closely enough, you can see a point when players start wearing down.

Through three games, Alabama's on pace to slow that process. A few blow out wins over Louisville, Arkansas State and Ole Miss allowed the Crimson Tide to substitute early and often.

As a result, the wear and tear on the starters is down considerably this September.

"I know that each one of those guys has contributed in a very positive way and I'm sure they all wish that they could have a few more carries," Nick Saban said. "I'm sure that as the season wears on, they'll get plenty of football and plenty of opportunities."

Last season, Jalen Hurts had 44.2 percent of the rushing yards in the first three games. Najee Harris' 28.4 percent share (30 carries) this season leads the way. Where last year the top three rushers got 79 percent of the carries, this season that number is 52.

By comparison, Texas A&M leading rusher Trayveon Williams has 59 rushing attempts this season or 42.8 percent of his team's total.

2018 % carries % yards 2017 % carries % yards Najee Harris 23.1 28.4 Jalen Hurts 30.0 44.2 Damien Harris 18.5 24.9 Damien Harris 21.7 21.8 Tua Tagovailoa 10.8 13 Bo Scarbrough 27.5 19.6 Brian Robinson 16.9 12.6 Najee Harris 16.7 11.8 Josh Jacobs 13.1 11.6 Calvin Ridley 0.83 1.8 Jalen Hurts 9.2 8.5 Josh Jacobs 0.83 0.8 Ronnie Clark 3.1 1.5 Tua Tagovailoa 2.5 0 Jerome Ford 3.1 0.6 Mac Jones 1.5 -0.8 TEAM 0.8 -0.1

With the passing game, Jerry Jeudy has 19.6 percent of the receptions compared to Calvin Ridley getting 34.9 percent of the catches through three games last year. Five different players have at least 10 percent of the reception total while it was just two last year.

Starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hasn't had to play more than a half in a game so far this September. He's thrown no more than 19 passes in a game while completing 36 of 50 (72 percent) overall.

This hasn't been a detriment to overall production. Alabama has the No. 1 scoring offense averaging 56.7 points a game.

Jalen Hurts came off the bench in the first half of every game to complete 67.9 percent of his passes (19 of 28) with four touchdowns.

Alabama's also been able to use third-string quarterback Mac Jones in all three games to this point. He's one of nine players who have run the ball compared to the seven with rushing attempts through three games last season. That's six running backs and three quarterbacks who got to run the ball this season.

2018 % catches % yards 2017 % catches % yards Jerry Jeudy 19.6 31.1 Calvin Ridley 34.9 40.9 DeVonta Smith 17.9 22.1 Bo Scarbrough 14 10.3 Irv Smth 16.1 13.2 Cam Sims 9.3 6.5 Henry Ruggs III 14.3 10.4 Damien Harris 9.3 5.4 Damien Harris 10.7 5.5 Robert Foster 7.0 14 Jaylen Waddle 8.9 11.4 Najee Harris 4.7 1.9 Josh Jacobs 7.1 4.4 Irv Smith 4.7 1.3 Derek Kief 1.8 1.5 DeVonta Smith 2.3 4.5 Hale Hentges 1.8 0.3 Xavian Marks 2.3 4.5 Najee Harris 1.8 0 Hale Hentges 2.3 4.3 Henry Ruggs 2.3 3 Miller Forristall 2.3 3 Jerry Jeudy 2.3 2.2 Jalen Hurts 2.3 -0.2

"I think it's good for the younger guys to get game reps so that with our whole next-man-up deal if there's a situation where they need to come in, take plays if somebody goes down or whatever, then they have in-game experience.," said left tackle Jonah Williams. "So, I think that's been valuable and obviously a positive byproduct of us winning by such large margins."

Starters have stayed in a little longer on the defensive side of the ball with so many in their first season in prime roles.

The top five tacklers are first-teamers while back-up middle linebacker Markail Benton is tied for sixth with nine stops followed by second-team safety Daniel Wright with eight.

Starting safety Xavier McKinney said he felt fresh knowing that luxury won't last.

"Yeah, but eventually there are going to be games where we're going to have to play all four quarters," McKinney said. "Of course, right now we haven't really got to do that but we will need to do that eventually so right now we don't have a lot of miles put on our legs but we just keep trying to improve in practice and we make sure we go hard in practice so when that time does come and we have to put in our four quarters, we're able to do that."

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.