An injury that forced him to miss a series against Florida and limited him all of last week during practice should no longer be an issue for Blake Sims this week as Alabama begins its preparation for Ole Miss.

Sims, the Crimson Tide's first-year starting quarterback, bruised his AC joint in his throwing shoulder late in the third quarter against Florida two weeks ago but returned -- and threw again -- later in that game. Alabama coach Nick Saban said that they had Sims on a "pitch count" during the Crimson Tide's bye week last week to rest the injury.

"He feels a lot better now, so we feel like he’s OK and will be ready to practice and be ready to go," Saban said in his Monday press conference.

Through four games this season, Sims has shown steady improvement in each, a trend that has been picked up by teammates in the locker room.

"I don’t think there’s any question about," Saban said. "I think if you watch the games, you sort of see that. I think our offensive team has responded to whatever quarterback has been in the game, but I do think there is a chemistry there that Blake’s been around these guys for a long time. They know him well. He’s performed well. I think there confidence in him has gone up, and I think when your leaders on your team are good people and they play effectively, I think it enhances their ability and capacity to affect other people, which is what leadership is all about. I think it’s been good."

In the Crimson Tide's last game against the Gators on Sept. 20, Sims threw for the second-best single-game passing total in school history (445) and set the program record for total offense by one player in a game with 484 yards (445 passing, 39 rushing).

Injury update

Senior wide receiver DeAndrew White, who was limited all of last week in practice, is the only player that is expected to be limited in practice Monday, Saban announced.

"... we’ll be day-to-day with him," Saban said. "Hopefully he’ll be able to practice some more toward the end of the week and maybe be able to play some role in this game."

Saban also said that cornerback Eddie Jackson (quadriceps/knee) is "getting there" after the sophomore sat out of the Florida game. But don't necessarily expect his job to be handed right back to him after missing time with injury.

"We worked Eddie quite a bit last week," Saban said. "... We’re certainly going to give him more opportunities in practice this week and see where that goes.

"Tony Brown played pretty well in the (Florida) game, so those two guys will probably compete through the course of the week and we’ll see how it sort of ends up later in the week based on how they perform and how they’re able to perform relative to their physical circumstances."

The same applies to senior defensive back Jarrick Williams, who has not played in a game since fracturing a bone in his foot in the season opener against West Virginia, but has been practicing with the team since Florida week.

"When guys miss significant amount of time of practice, just because they’re healthy doesn’t mean that they’re immediately ready to play," Saban said.

 

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