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Two days before the national championship, we sat down with Tony Elliott and asked for his thoughts on the running backs' involvement in the passing game -- or, more precisely, lack thereof.

Not that it was a major problem or even close to it. The offense was lighting people up over the second half of the season and didn't really need the running backs' help to give nightmares to defensive coordinators.

But what is interesting from that conversation now is how Elliott was already looking toward next season. He didn't let on that the running backs were going to be a factor in the passing game against Alabama in the national championship.