Starting cornerback Trevon Diggs is out indefinitely with a broken foot, coach Nick Saban announced on Monday. Diggs suffered the injury in Saturday’s win over Arkansas.
“I did not know about this until yesterday when they did an MRI,” Saban said. “He’s going to be out indefinitely.”
Diggs has started all six games at cornerback for Alabama and is among its most experienced defensive backs. He is eighth on the defense with 20 tackles this season and leads the team with six passes broken up. He has one interception on the season.
“It’s a big loss but we have to step up,” safety Deionte Thompson said. “Us, the older guys, we have to get the younger guys on the same page as us. We have to bring them in for extra film meetings, meet with them one-on-one, teach them the adjustments so they can be ready to play winning football.”
Junior college transfer Saivion Smith started the first three games of the season at cornerback opposite Diggs and might be the most likely candidate to replace him. Smith has continued to play at corner in Alabama’s dime package. Freshman cornerback Josh Jobe could also be in the mix.
“We now have five defensive players that are out for an extended period of time that were starters or in the two deep, and three of those guys are defensive backs. So it’s going to be challenging,” Saban said. “We’re obviously very thin and need some other guys to step up and develop and next guy up has got to take the challenge and play well for us. Patrick (Surtain Jr.) has played quite a bit at his position. So we do have two guys that have some experience, but we don’t have a lot of depth right now and we’re going to have to work to get some other players to develop and be able to play for us.”
Freshman cornerback Jalyn Armour-Davis is out for the season with a knee injury and safety Daniel Wright is suspended for a violation of team rules. Outside linebacker Terrell Lewis is out indefinitely with a knee injury. Fellow outside linebacker Chris Allen was lost for the season to a knee injury in fall camp.
Backup tight end Kedrick James suffered a high ankle sprain and is expected to be out for some time as well, Saban said.
