Alabama will head to Tennessee without Ryan Coleman-Williams and five other players after Wednesday evening’s SEC availability report ruled them out for Saturday’s game.
Listed as out were LB Cayden Jones, DL Jeremiah Beaman, CB Nick Sherman, OLB Desmond Umeozulu, WR Ryan Coleman-Williams and DL Terrance Green. Center Racin Delgatty was tagged questionable, while OLB Justin Hill was listed as probable.
Coleman-Williams is dealing with knee and head injuries, and the head injury knocked him out of Saturday’s loss to Georgia. Coach Kalen DeBoer said Monday that Coleman-Williams was unlikely to play against Tennessee and would be week-to-week after that.
DeBoer expanded on that Wednesday night during his Hey Coach radio show: "Right now, we won't expect him to be with us, as far as being on the field. Going through a few different things -- some from games before, and one from the game on Saturday, too.
Just the guy was out there for the last couple weeks giving everything he has. He was trying to get to probably the bye week.
Just with some other things that he had to work through that probably would've limited him this week anyway, it was something we needed to do.
"The guy's heart's in it and he was trying to do everything he could to get out there last week and give it everything he had, and the same things he wanted to do in the next weeks, as well. But we'll be without him."
Green left the Georgia game late in the first half and has been managing an ongoing lower-leg injury, DeBoer said Monday. Without Green, Alabama’s top four defensive tackles were Kedrick Bingley-Jones, London Simmons, Isaia Faga and Edric Hill.
Delgatty went down on the final offensive snap against Georgia with a leg injury. If he is unable to go Saturday, sophomore Mal Waldrep would be the expected starting center.
Hill has sat out the last three games after suffering a lower-leg injury against Florida State.
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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 🡒]