Nick Saban Talks Nagging Injuries, Drew Sanders' Status before LSU

The Alabama coach shared how this week has given his players time to heal and rest from nagging injuries, including an update on Drew Sanders.

Even though the Crimson Tide is off the weekend, Nick Saban still took a little time to call into his own radio show for an interview with Eli Gold Thursday night. 

Saban was calling in from his lake house on Lake Burton in Georgia and talked about some of the ways the bye week has benefitted Alabama at this point in the season. 

He compared his team's physical status to the stock market. You want to analyze if things are trending in a positive or negative direction, and in that regard the bye week comes at a good time because Saban says they are always trying to keep the players at "their optimum physical level of performance."

According to Saban, the team usually splits reps between the starters and the backups 60-40 during a regular game week so that the starters are obviously getting the majority of the snaps. 

This week, the reps were split 50-50 to minimize the reps of the starters during this bye week and maximize the development of some of the younger players. 

"So that hopefully we strengthen the depth of our team to some degree," Saban said during the radio show. 

At this point in the season, a lot of players are dealing with nagging injuries according to Saban, and this bye week gives them a little bit of a chance to heal including Drew Sanders. 

The outside linebacker has been dealing with a wrist/thumb injury and was seen on the sidelines with a hard cast last week against Tennessee. Sanders has missed the last three games with the injury, but Saban is hopeful that he could be ready for LSU.

"I think it's a possibility," Saban said on Sanders' availability next weekend. "I think they're gonna do some scans on him next week early in the week, and if those work out, he may be able to play in the next game."

Saban called the medical technology available to his team "unbelievable," and the key to Sanders' return will be whether his wrist and thumb are healed properly so that he doesn't risk immediate re-injury.