Alabama suspended three players for the whole College Football Playoff over NCAA violations of some sort, Nick Saban told media ahead of the Orange Bowl.
Bama may reinsert one 4-star offensive lineman after another’s suspension
Three Tide suspensions for the Playoff are for NCAA reasons, Nick Saban announced.
Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports
The guys who won’t play against Oklahoma (or in a title game) are:
- Starting left guard Deonte Brown,
- Reserve offensive lineman Elliot Baker, and
- Backup tight end Kedrick James
James hadn’t played in the last seven games, and Baker hadn’t played all season, according to Alabama’s official participation chart. But Brown is an important loss.
Brown has appeared in every game except the one against the Citadel and started in five of the last six. He became the starting left guard for Bama’s game against Tennessee on the third Saturday in October and has held down that spot ever since.
When Brown, a redshirt sophomore, took the starting job, he replaced senior Lester Cotton. The simplest thing to do would be to reinsert Cotton, but maybe it’ll be something else.
Nick Saban has chided media before for thinking Alabama’s able to “just shit another player” when someone’s lost to injury, suspension, transfer, or graduation.
But I’m going to do that now and assess that Bama should be fine at left guard. Cotton was a four-star recruit in the class of 2015, when he was the No. 4 offensive guard in the country. Brown was a relative nobody, only grading out as the No. 9 overall OG in the 2016 class.
Cotton has made eight starts this year, and he’s logged plenty of time in relief of Brown. He replaced Brown in the SEC Championship and played 39 snaps, including the three late Bama touchdown drives that made the Tide the No. 1 Playoff seed in the first place.
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