Alabama Football coach Nick Saban opened up week one of Alabama’s 2020 college football season talking about the matchup between Alabama and Missouri. The Crimson Tide is a 28 point favorite going into their SEC opener.
What it means: Alabama releases first depth chart
Ronald Williams Jr. suffers broken arm
The Alabama Football Roster (9/19)
Notes
— Saban confirmed that defensive back Ronald Williams suffered a fractured arm and will be out for the game against Missouri. At this point, Williams is the only Tide player set to miss the game.
— To little surprise, Alabama named Mac Jones as its starting quarterback. “Mac has had a really good camp, really played well in the last scrimmage,” Saban said. “Done a good job of taking a leadership role. I think he’s playing with a lot of confidence. I think our players have confidence in him. We’re pleased with his development. I think it’s important that Mac plays within himself, executes what we need him to execute in terms of distributing the ball and just do his job.”
— The NCAA announced last week it will allow student-athletes in all sports to wear social justice messages on their uniforms. Saban said Alabama has not yet met about whether or not they will have a sign as a team. “I think that we’ve always tried to represent the University of Alabama together as a unit,” he said, “so any talk of anything that we might do, it would be something that we would want to do as a team.”
— Alabama has two freshmen starters listed on defense. Will Anderson is set to take on the starting Jack linebacker role, while Malachi Moore and Brian Branch are both listed as starters at the Star role. “Both players had very good camps,” Saban said. “They’re very good competitors. Football’s important to them. They’re smart. They were able to learn and grow in the system very quickly. We needed some players to come through as young players, and these two guys certainly did that and did a very good job.”