Alabama senior defensive tackle Tim Keenan injured his ankle at Tuesday’s practice in Tuscaloosa and is expected to miss an undetermined number of games.
According to On3’s Brett McMurphy, Keenan was scheduled to undergo ‘tightrope’ surgery today.
Loyal readers may remember back in 2019 when former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had the same procedure and started in a critical home game vs. LSU 20 days after going under the knife.
This space called on Dr. Michael Gilmore, the former Florida safety (1990-94) who played on three of Steve Spurrier’s seven teams that won the SEC in the early 1990s, at that time nearly six years ago.
When asked in 2019 what his expectations were for an elite athlete like Tagovailoa competing 20 days removed from ‘tightrope’ surgery, Gilmore told MajorWager, “I’ll tell you it’s really hard to be back to full speed at three weeks playing with that medical condition. I know he is being tended to like a King 24/7, and they have a great medical staff at Alabama, but it’s still tough to get back so quickly. I would be extremely surprised if he were back playing full speed this week, and I guess that’s why we keep hearing “game-time decision.”
When pressed on a percentage in a best-case scenario, Gilmore said, “Seventy, maybe 75 percent. Maybe that’s enough for him to be effective, though. What’s going to be an issue is scrambling around. I just don’t think it’s possible for him to be moving around at full speed this soon.”
As it turned out, Gilmore’s analysis was aces. Tagovailoa looked extremely sharp on the opening drive throwing the ball. However, when he scrambled to his right for what should’ve been an easy rushing touchdown on the Crimson Tide’s opening drive, he fumbled the ball and LSU recovered.
As the game got into the second half and Tagovailoa continued to have to use his legs to evade defenders, he began favoring the ankle much more. Toward the end of LSU’s 46-41 win at Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tagovailoa was limping badly.
When the game ended, it was an extremely slow and long walk back to the locker room for Tagovailoa.
When Keenan is 20 days out from surgery, it will be Sept. 16. Alabama will be on its open date after hosting Wisconsin with its SEC opener at Georgia looming on Sept. 27.
Therefore, we can reasonably speculate that Keenan is going to miss at least three games. If his recovery goes perfectly, he might be able to play in 31 days at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
In 13 games last season, Keenan recorded 40 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and one pass broken up. He is a preseason first-team All-American in Phil Steele’s magazine.
In 2023, Keenan played in all 14 games and produced 38 tackles, two TFL’s, one sack and one PBU.
Keenan and RB Jam Miller are officially out of Saturday’s opener at FSU, and Kalen DeBoer’s team might be without a third critical player. Senior right guard Jaeden Roberts is ‘questionable’ after sustaining a concussion earlier this month.
DeBoer revealed Monday that Roberts has been in concussion protocol for more than two weeks. During today’s SEC teleconference, DeBoer said Roberts’s status is “still in question” but that he’s “progressing.”
The second-year head coach didn’t specifically state whether Roberts was still in protocol or not.
As of Wednesday afternoon, most books had Alabama favored by 13.5 points with a total of 50.5. The Seminoles were +400 on the money line. Here’s my in-depth preview of the Tide and the ‘Noles.