TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Junior center Ryan Kelly missed two games with a sprained knee. Freshman left tackle Cam Robinson had to be helped off the field at Tennessee with a high ankle sprain. Senior right tackle Austin Shepherd hobbled off against Texas A&M with knee and ankle injuries.
Getting beat up over the course of the season comes with being a University of Alabama offensive lineman, but during the past few weeks there’s seemingly been a non-ending rotation of players coming and going among the starters.
Right guard already had a sort of a platoon between senior Leon Brown and sophomore Alphonse Taylor, but with Arie Kounandjio being limited for by an ankle injury for a few days following the Ole Miss loss the four other spots all had a setback of some sort during the month of October.
“Business as usual,” Kelly said.
Robinson has been the question mark this week, but being from Monroe, La., there’s extra incentive to play this week at LSU (8 p.m. ET, CBS). During the observation period of Wednesday’s practice he appeared to be splitting reps with Shepherd at left tackle, with sophomore Grant Hill filling in at right tackle.
The good news for No. 5 Alabama is that no one has sustained a season-ending injury, while players like redshirt freshman Bradley Bozeman have gotten valuable experience.
“I think they’ve done a good job,” Coach Nick Saban said. “I think our offensive line has improved as the season has gone.
“Everybody has kind of embraced their role of what they need to do.”
Perhaps more importantly is that despite the potential there haven’t been too many setbacks. Bozeman had some trouble after replacing Kelly at Ole Miss, but since Arkansas, when Alabama only had 66 rushing yards, it tallied 298 against Texas A&M and 183 at Tennessee.
“Between Arkansas into A&M and Tennessee, we’re just moving guys off the ball,” Kelly said. “That’s what we want to do up front is move the line of scrimmage. Make their safeties and linebackers make tackles. If you look at the running backs we have, those are going to be some hard tackles in open space. In both those games we did that. That’s going to be really important this week.”
Alabama has also only yielded one sack in each of the last two games, and eight for the season. Not all of them were of senior quarterback Blake Sims.
“I have no concern,” he said about the line injuries. “ We have guys who are backups that work very hard, work even harder than some of the starters.
“My job is to let whoever is playing in that front five, let them know that I trust you, I love you, and no matter what, just remember: I’ve got feet. So if you miss a block I can run.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
