Alabama was back to work with an outdoors practice today as it begins preparation for Arkansas on Saturday. The Crimson Tide was in shorts and helmets, with no pads for a lighter practice (as is normal on Mondays).
Here are some observations from the open period:
- Left tackle Jonah Williams (ankle) was dressed and with the offensive line, but Nick Saban said earlier that he’d be limited today. He might be limited tomorrow, then is expected to practice Wednesday. The injury isn’t expected to keep him out of the game and he could have finished the game Saturday if needed. Williams had a small brace on his right ankle.
- If you were curious about why Jedrick Wills briefly left the game on Saturday, he told us he just got knocked below the waist on a play and was slow to get up. He’s fine.
- The team is pretty healthy overall. There were four exercise bikes on the side of the field, which means there are probably four guys who will be limited today. But no one jumped out to me during practice and I didn’t notice any absences.
- Saban had this update on OLB Terrell Lewis today. Lewis still isn’t practicing but Saban didn’t rule out that he could return this season. “Terrell is making really good progress in rehab and what he’s able to do. I’m not a doctor so it’s a medical decision as to when he can start running, doing drills, when he can practice, when he can play. We have no established timetable for those things. It’s strictly up to the medical staff in terms of the progress, the strength development and all those things that go into account as to say what’s the next step of this rehab. And it’s a little different for every guy. He’s a really hard worker and he’s really worked hard at his rehab and it’s going really, really well. But philosophically, I don’t make those decisions about when a guy should or shouldn’t play or what’s changed. I don’t know that anything’s changed.”
- Noticed that freshman WR Xavier Williams was wearing a scout team jersey today. That’s not a huge surprise given that he hasn’t played much this season, but I hadn’t noticed it before. If we weren’t sure before, you can bet he’s a redshirt.
- There was one NFL scout at practice today, though I couldn’t get a look at the logo on his hat.
That’s all for today. Be back tomorrow.
