Saban Updates Injuries, Receiver Rotation
Alabama coach Nick Saban spoke Wednesday morning on the SEC weekly football coaches conference call and provided updates on several burning questions had by the media and Bama football nation. Here's a look at the highlights of that call from Saban.
On injuries
“Both [linebacker Deontae Lawson and offensive guard Terrence Ferguson] are able to practice. We probably won’t know how effective they will be for the game until later in the week.”
Note: both players were dealing with ankle sprains, but Ferguson's was said to be the worst of the two. Ferguson is a backup guard who when healthy could push Darrien Dalcourt for playing time. Lawson is the quarterback of the defense, and though not sorely missed in Starkville, would be a huge plus for Alabama should he be cleared by team doctors to play Saturday in College Station against the Texas A&M aggies.
In the three-plus games he's played Lawson has 26 tackles, 3.5 for losses totaling 21 yards, and a pair of sacks for a loss of 18 yards.
Many fans wondered why top receiver Jermaine Burton only played in spurts against Mississippi. Saban said that was by design.
“[Burton's] been a little bit banged up,” Saban said. “We were going to try to spot him in the game and get him through the game if we could. Hopefully, he’ll be better this week.”
Bama needs all the weapons it can get going against "The 12th man," aka the hostile crowd at College Station. Burton is the team's top producing receiver through five games with 189 yards and two touchdowns on eight grabs. He has been the Tde's top deep threat andseems to have a chemistry on the long ball with quarterback Jalen Milroe.
On the playing rotations among wide receivers
“We want to be able to feature the skill guys that we have, and it’s been a work in progress for us in the passing game. And we want to continue to work on timing in the passing game. We want to work on getting the ball to some of our skill guys who we think are really good players. We haven’t done that as consistently as we’d like, but I think we’re making progress and we’re going to continue to work on it.”
Obviously, a healthy Burton is a big part of that. Bama and the Aggies will tee it up at 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday and you can listen on both Tide 100.9 and 95.3 The Bear.
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Gallery Credit: Jacob Harrison
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