Alabama Football: Lane Kiffin's Dark-Horse Stars Down the Stretch

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — By now you know all of the big names. Blake Sims. T.J. Yeldon. Amari Cooper. Derrick Henry.

They are the pieces that have carried the Alabama offense this far in the season, that have put Alabama in position for a national championship.

But as the year progresses, so too do things change personnel-wise. Players get injured or go through peaks and valleys. The lineup on the first snap of the season is almost always different than the lineup on the last.

For Alabama, if you’re looking for two breakout players down the stretch, look at wide receiver ArDarius Stewart and running back Tyren Jones.

Both have seen an uptick in snaps and playing time through a couple of injuries. And both could be the stars of tomorrow that start that ascent in the final games of 2014.

Kenyan Drake’s injury against Ole Miss left several specific holes on Alabama’s offense that, combined with a few other situations, has given Stewart and Jones their opportunities.

First, Drake is probably the fastest guy on the team, and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin noticed. Kiffin used Drake in creative ways to get him involved. Never was this more evident than his 87-yard touchdown pass to open Alabama’s win over Florida.

To replace that speed, Alabama has turned to Stewart.

“ArDarius Stewart is a fast, explosive guy who got to play a little bit more (against Mississippi State), and we've been trying to play him all year long,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “He is a guy, to me, that can make explosive plays, and hopefully the experience that he gets and that he is getting is going to help him realize the importance of paying attention to detail, doing the little things right that he needs to do to be able to have success as a player, because he certainly can be a guy that could make plays for us and be a great complement to some of the other players that we have who are making plays for us.”

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With receiver DeAndrew White dinged up, Stewart got his first career start against the Bulldogs and was a part of the offense from the get-go. On the first play of Alabama’s second series, Sims missed Stewart on a long ball that drew a pass interference. On the last play of the first quarter, Stewart couldn’t come down with a one-on-one deep ball near the end zone.

He ended up catching two passes in that game for a total of 25 yards, but the message was clear: Alabama wants to use him as a deep threat.

Stewart may not be able to jump back in the mix this week, though. He didn’t participate much in practice this week, and Saban called him “very questionable” for this game.

The other place the Drake injury hurt Alabama is running back depth.

Yeldon is the workhorse, and Henry is the power spell back, but behind those two, Alabama didn’t have any proven options, where Drake previously was a change-of-pace back out of the backfield.

So when Yeldon got hurt against LSU, Alabama turned to Jones.

Jones was a 4-star out of Marietta, Georgia, in 2013 but redshirted his first year on campus. He’s gotten into games that were out of hand late this season, but against No. 1 Mississippi State, he found himself the third running back in a rotation that was used to limit the stress on Yeldon and his hobbled ankle.

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Jones didn’t register on the stat sheet but was in on pass protection several times, high praise from a coach who demands perfection in blocking from his running backs. He was the No. 2 running back against Western Carolina, with Yeldon resting as a precaution, and went for 75 yards on 11 carries.

Saban wouldn’t quite shower Jones with the praise that he did for Stewart, though. Jones was suspended after the Tennessee game and didn’t play against LSU. He’s still very much learning how to be a complete player on and off the field.

“We’ve always thought that Tyren has really good ability,” Saban said. “Sometimes it just takes guys a little time to mature, you know in terms of learning how to do things how you need to do them so that you can be a successful player on the field.

“I talked about being exact, lots of times we get guys here who have had quite a bit of success, and they’ve never had to pay attention to detail, and it takes a little while for them to get where they need to be, not only on the field but off the field, and have the kind of discipline they need to have a chance to be successful. Tyren’s come a long ways this year and he’s doing things a lot better and playing well for us. He played very well in the last game, and we have a lot of confidence in him.”

Still, it’s clear which running back the staff trusts most right now behind Yeldon and Henry.

As Alabama enters this final stretch of the season—a tense Iron Bowl rematch, a possible SEC Championship Game berth that could lead to the inaugural playoff—it will pull out all of the stops to ensure the 2014 season is a memorable one.

Don’t be surprised if those plans include two new offensive weapons.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats come from CFBStats.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.