How will Alabama manage a crowded backfield?

Burton Burns is easily one of the most accomplished assistant coaches in college football.

As the longtime running backs coach at Alabama, he has mentored a pair of Heisman Trophy winners and five first- or second-round NFL draft picks. The overall numbers he has helped compile since joining Nick Saban's staff in Tuscaloosa in 2007 are staggering: The Crimson Tide rank among the top 10 of Power 5 teams in rushing yards, yards per carry and rushing touchdowns during that time.

That's not to mention Burns' former stops at Clemson and Tulane, either, where he cut his teeth and worked with backs such as James Davis and C.J. Spiller.

But Burns, who turns 65 in October, has a new kind of problem on…