Unlike as in some previous weeks, the Week 7 And The Valley Shook Offensive Speed Position Player of the Week is an easy call. Sure, there were a number of nice games around the SEC this week. Two Kentucky runners had 100-yard games. Jevan Snead had a very nice game against UAB. Tim Tebow seemed to be more of his old self, passing for 255 yards with 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions, and 69 yards rushing. Joe Cox and A.J. Green each had good stats against Vandy. But the clear headliner offensive player of the week was Alabama running back Mark Ingram.
It wasn't even close. Ingram popped off a whopping 246 yards rushing on 24 attempts, easily the most yards in any game for any runner in the conference this season, and was also his team's leading pass receiver, catching 2 passes for 23 yards, with one being a game-high 22 yard catch-and-run. He also scored Alabama's only offensive touchdown. On a night when the Bama passing game struggled, completing only 10 passes for a 4.6 yard average with 0 touchdown passes and 2 interceptions, Mark Ingram saved Bama's bacon against a determined South Carolina team that was playing probably pretty close to its highest level.
Incidentally, Greg McElroy's ATVSQBPI on the game? 1.5 yards per attempt. Thank you very much, Greg. Excellent work against the Gamecocks. Julio Jones did not catch a pass, and did not even get a touch except on punt returns, subbing for an injured Javier Arenas.
Ingram did it from traditional running sets, and also from the Wild Elephant. The Gamecock defense, which is a solid unit overall, had no answer for it. And Bama needed all of it, because except for their inability to stop Ingram, and a couple of crucial missed opportunities on offense, South Carolina was playing right with Bama.
So congratulations to Mark Ingram, and the offensive line that opened up holes for him, and to Greg McElroy for making it absolutely necessary for Alabama to lean heavily on Ingram's running.