Alabama’s football injury list is getting crowded at exactly the wrong time, and Saturday’s trip to Tennessee will ask plenty of a battered Crimson Tide front and a receiver room missing a key piece.
Wide receiver Coleman-Williams is considered “week-to-week,” according to coach Kalen DeBoer, after dealing with head and knee injuries. He was among the players listed out on Alabama’s first SEC availability report Wednesday, Oct. 14, along with defensive linemen Jeremiah Beaman and Terrance Green, linebackers Cayden Jones and Desmond Umeozulu, and defensive back Nick Sherman.
Offensive lineman Racin Delgatty is questionable with a lower leg issue, while linebacker Justin Hill is probable with a lower-body injury. DeBoer said Delgatty is limited in practice and is “pretty sore, kind of, working through things.”
That matters because Alabama is going to have to hold up against a Tennessee run game that can wreck a plan fast. London Simmons will be asked to help at nose, and the challenge is obvious after what Tennessee RB DeSean Bishop did in his last home game: 220 yards on 34 carries against Auburn. Georgia also found room in the second half with Green out, so this isn’t the sort of spot where the Tide can afford to be thin up front.
At center, Alabama may be choosing between a compromised Racin Delgatty and Mal Waldrep making his first start in the middle. The job description there is not exactly subtle.
The Tide will also need to find ways to operate around Gilliam’s disruption, which means more passing on early downs and some answers on the edges in the run game. His tape has drawn a comparison to Quinnen Williams’ breakout season, the one that ended with Williams going No. 3 overall.
All of that is wrapped into a road game in an environment that should tell Alabama plenty about itself after a loss. As Katie Windham pointed out, this is the kind of test that reveals how a team responds.
Inside the building, the message has been simple: “Don’t let Georgia beat you twice,” has been a common refrain this week. Alabama isn’t staring past Tennessee toward a possible rematch with the Bulldogs, but the Tide also knows another misstep would make those preseason goals a lot harder to reach. With the 12-team College Football Playoff in place, Alabama still has a path to the CFP and the SEC title game, but that path gets shakier with a loss on Saturday.
The matchup comes with all the usual weight of “The Third Saturday in October,” a tradition that hasn’t always landed on the same calendar date. The first meeting in the series was actually played Nov. 28, 1901, and ended in a 6-6 tie. By 1939, the game had shifted into its familiar October slot, and sports writers gave it the name it still carries today.
The annual date became less steady in the 1990s after SEC expansion and divisional play, but the game has been played on the third Saturday in October for the last four seasons. It will land there again in 2026, when Alabama and Tennessee meet on Oct. 17 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
There’s also a toughness thread running through the week in another story involving Josh Ford. Nick Kelly wrote about Ford, who is following Bear Bryant’s example by playing through a broken bone.
Ford broke his arm in 2026 and played the next game against Georgia. Bryant broke his leg in 1935 and played the next game against Tennessee.
That kind of grit still resonates. Dr.
Lyle Cain, an orthopedic surgeon at Andrews Sports Medicine, told AL.com, “The fact that Bear Bryant played with a fibula fracture kind of further indicates his toughness and resiliency and mentality and kind of everything he is legendary for,” Dr. Lyle Cain, orthopedic surgeon at Andrews Sports Medicine, told AL.com.
“Even when he was playing in college, that was probably a good indicator of the kind of person he was going to be.”
Before the football talk fully takes over, Alabama basketball will get its first televised look of the 2026-27 season on Thursday night. The Crimson Tide faces the Rebels at 8 p.m. at Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham on SEC Network, in the Ballin’ in Boutwell Exhibition. It’s Alabama’s third appearance in the showcase, after beating Wake Forest in 2024 and topping Florida State 109-105 the next year.
Aden Holloway remains suspended, Anderson Diaz is out with an elbow issue, and Jaxon Richardson has been dealing with some undisclosed issues, though all are expected back very early in the regular season.
And if you want one more dose of Alabama football art before kickoff, engineering student and artist Boyden has been turning heads with vintage comic book covers for each game this season. For Mississippi State, he set “Big Al” against a Bulldog with a cowbell on its collar.
For Georgia, he staged a boxing-ring showdown in Bryant-Denny Stadium with “Big Al” and “Uga.” For Tennessee, he drew “Big Al” facing “Smokey,” with a Volunteer hunter trying to hold the bluetick coonhound back in the Great Smoky Mountains.
In Other News...
SEC Response To Alabamas Georgia Frustration Wont Ease Many Fans
The aftermath of Alabamas loss to Georgia has kept the focus on more than just the scoreboard, with plenty of frustration aimed at several officiating decisions that drew heavy attention in the moment and even more after the game. Among the disputed calls was a no-call on a potential pass interference, one of several sequences that left Alabama fans searching for answers after a game already loaded with stakes and tension.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey addressed the broader issue by saying the conference does not comment on judgment calls made by officials, while also noting how difficult the job is and how the league reviews mistakes tied to rule application. For Alabama supporters, though, that explanation is unlikely to calm much of the anger, especially when the biggest flashpoints from the game are still the ones everyone keeps replaying. [Read more 🡒]
Georgia's Alabama Win Just Got More Complicated For Kirby Smart
Georgias win over Alabama in Week 6 gave Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs a huge early-season boost, but it also came with a reminder that staying unbeaten can be just as much about surviving the injury report as it is about beating ranked opponents. Georgia is now No. 1 after the 20-17 win, and Smart has already had to address a running back room that has been thinned out enough to force a committee approach.
Chauncey Bowens is the latest concern, with the junior sidelined by a lower-body injury and set to miss the upcoming Auburn game. There is no timetable for his return, and with Nate Frazier also part of the injury mix, Georgias depth at a key spot is becoming something to watch even as the Bulldogs try to keep their momentum rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Alabamas Tennessee Test Could Come Down To A Few Unexpected Names
As Alabama turns toward Tennessee, the focus is not just on the usual stars but on a few names that may need to matter more than planned. Noah Rogers, Mal Waldrep, London Simmons and Carmelo O'Neal are all in position to have their roles stretched by injuries and shifting team needs, which can force a staff to lean on depth in a hurry. In a game like this, those kinds of midweek adjustments can shape everything from the opening rotation to the way Alabama tries to manage the line of scrimmage and the back end.
The challenge is that Tennessee does not offer a gentle place to introduce unfamiliar pieces. Any increased workload for Rogers, Waldrep, Simmons or O'Neal would come in a difficult environment, where execution tends to matter as much as experience. Alabama does not need every backup to become a headline, but it may need one or two of these players to settle the game in ways that are not always obvious until the matchup starts to unfold. [Read more 🡒]