Three days before its Week 2 matchup against South Florida, No. 4 Alabama still doesn’t know the status of its starting left tackle. Sophomore Kadyn Proctor was announced as the Crimson Tide’s starter ahead of last weekend’s season opener against Western Kentucky. However, he missed the game after sustaining a shoulder injury during warmups.

Earlier this week, Kalen DeBoer said Proctor’s injury would be something the team “will be able to manage,” while stating he would continue to be evaluated on a day-by-day basis. During Wednesday’s SEC teleconference, the head coach provided another update on his left tackle.

“He’s working towards it,” DeBoer said. “We’ll have to kind of see right towards the end of the week. If it was up to him, he’d probably be out there. But we gotta be smart, and that means that these days earlier in the week, we’ve gotta be smart and careful.

“He’s doing really well. He’s pretty much living in the training room. He’s got strong aspirations to get on the field as fast as possible. So I can’t say one way or the other kind of where that would be as of right now with still three days left before we play.”

Proctor was replaced by Elijah Pritchett over the weekend. Making his first career start, the redshirt sophomore struggled, earning a 50.2 pass-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus while allowing three pressures and a sack over 14 pass-blocking snaps. Pritchett spent the spring working at left tackle before Proctor rejoined the team from Iowa. However, he had been spending the past few weeks at right tackle where he competed for the starting job with redshirt freshman Wilkin Formby.

"He got thrown into that, certainly unexpectedly, on Saturday," DeBoer said of Pritchett. "Practiced maybe all but the first three or four practices — maybe a couple more — early in fall camp, he was at right tackle, ever since then. In the 30 minutes before kickoff, realizing you're going to be the starting left tackle — really proud of the way he responded. I didn't feel like he was overwhelmed in any way.

"He took a lot of snaps, actually most of his snaps, this spring at left tackle next to Tyler Booker. That was very helpful. Sometimes it's weird how things work out, and I think a lot of those reps were really valuable for him to feel comfortable on Saturday. Pleased with him. There's some things he could improve, no question about it, but not being overwhelmed or anything like that was evident."

Redshirt freshman Miles McVay also spent time at left tackle but also went through growing pains in pass-blocking duties. According to PFF, McVay finished with a team-worst 27.6 pass-blocking mark, allowing a pressure over 10 pass-blocking snaps.

Alabama (1-0) will play South Florida (1-0) on Saturday at 6 p.m. CT inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPN.