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Alabama’s long list of injuries ahead of Monday’s Playoff National Championship now officially includes starting right guard Lester Cotton Sr, who appeared to suffer some kind of leg injury during a Sugar Bowl semifinal win against Clemson.
Cotton joins three starting linebackers on the shelf for the Tide in the title game against Georgia. The Tide are generally healthier on offense than they are on defense, though tight end Miller Forristall has been out almost all year and another offensive lineman, Brandon Kennedy, is also done for the season.
“We’re not healthy,” Saban told reporters at the National Championship’s media day on Saturday. “We’ve got an injury list that’s really, really long. It’s been a cumulative effect of the season.”
After noting that Cotton and linebacker Anfernee Jennings won’t play Monday, Saban added, “I can’t even tell you the number of guys that we have out, but it’s a pretty significant number.”
Alabama has more positional depth across the board than almost every team in the country, owing to their streak of seven No. 1 recruiting classes that’s just ended for the class of 2018. The man behind Cotton on the Tide’s depth chart is senior J.C. Hassenauer, a former four-star recruit who was the No. 1 center in the class of 2014.
Cotton, a junior, was a four-star in the class of 2015. It’s standard practice when Alabama starters get hurt for blue-chip talent to replace them. All three injured linebackers are replaceable by either four- or five-star recruits from recent years, and so will be Cotton assuming Hassenauer slides into his spot against Georgia.
“The one thing that I’ve been really pleased with is the way that a number of players have gotten an opportunity because of some of the absence that we’ve had due to injury,” Saban said, “and they’ve stepped up and done a really nice job, and hopefully there will be some other opportunities for guys to do the same thing in this game.”