Notebook: Alabama's SEC Title Might Have Come At a Cost With Landon Dickerson's Knee Injury
ATLANTA — The University of Alabama's 52-46 win over Florida on Saturday night inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium might have come at a high price.
Senior center Landon Dickerson went down with an apparent knee injury on the Crimson Tide's final touchdown of the evening — a 15-yard strike from quarterback Mac Jones to wide out DeVonta Smith, which ended up being the game-winner.
"He has a knee injury," Alabama coach Nick Saban said postgame. "We don't know the extent of it. We'll do an MRI tomorrow and find out. It's pretty serious, I think, but we don't know for sure how serious."
Dickerson, who is also an Outland Trophy finalist which honors the best interior offensive lineman in the country, came into this meeting with the Gators having graded out at 91.0 per the Crimson Tide coaches and having given up zero sacks.
As the Alabama medical staff loaded up the 6-foot-6, 325 pound lineman onto the cart, almost every player for the Crimson Tide left the bench to show respect for one of its toughest members.
"I think he's probably one of the most popular guys on our team," Saban said. "He has great leadership qualities. His impact can affect guys in a positive way. He's got a great personality. I don't know anybody on our team that doesn't really like him.
"I think that was demonstrated by how everybody reacted to him getting injured."
Dickerson and head athletic trainer Jeff Allen watched the final play, when linebacker Christian Harris sacked Florida's Kyle Trask as time expired, from the entrance of the tunnel.
"Great leader," Alabama safety Jordan Battle said. "He earned our respect a long time ago when he first got here. He speaks to us every Thursday in our team meeting. He tells us to keep finishing, keep competing. We finished tonight. He's always on us about finishing. That's what we did."
John Metchie II's Thunderous Hit Changes Game
When it happened, one might not have thought of it as the play of the night, but it ended up turning out that way.
With the ball on Florida's 22-yard line, Jones dropped back to throw a dart to tight end Miller Forristall and defensive back Trey Dean III snatched the ball away, heading in the opposite way for a momentum-changer for the Gators.
But when Dean was coming up the field, there was Alabama wide receiver John Metchie II in his blindside, delivering a blistering hit which jarred the ball loose, allowing Smith to recover it.
With a fresh set of downs, the Crimson Tide scored on the very next play after Jones hit Smith in stride for a 31-yard touchdown with 6:07 remaining in the first quarter.
Even though Alabama saw its double-digit lead evaporate at different points in the evening, that hustle play from Metchie proved to be the difference maker in the 52-46 victory.
"That was a great play, no doubt," Saban said. "I mean, not a great play for us, for them to get an interception. But for guys to keep hustling. We do every day for the first five minutes of practice, we do maybe eight or nine different sort of take-care-of-the-ball-type drills.
"He's always on the other end of that. We do circle chase, we do midline, we do stumble bum, stiff arm. He knows exactly what the defensive players are trying to do to get the ball out because we do it every day.
"He's the other guy, all right? Tonight he had a chance to strip it out. I'm sure that those experiences of working every day against the defensive players, trying to get it out on him, was where he got the idea of how to get it out.
"But it was a big play in the game. We were down in the red zone. When you turn it over down there, it's a double whammy lots of times. So to get the ball back was really important. Then to be able to score was huge because we stayed two scores ahead in the game until the end of the game. That was critical against a good Florida offensive team."
Battle noted afterwards that Metchie might need to change positions after he saw how the Canadian laid the wood.
"He might have converted to the defensive side of the ball after that hit," Battle said. "That was a great hit, great moment in the game. They caught an interception. Then we turned the momentum right around when Metchie hit him. That was a great turnover by the offense.
Tide-bits ...
- Smith is now the Crimson Tide's all-time leading receiver with 3,620 yards. He also broke the school-record for most receptions in a game with 15.
- Alabama's 28th SEC championship is the most of any school in the league. It was Saban's seventh conference title since arriving in Tuscaloosa.
- The Crimson Tide has now scored 35-or-more points in 24 straight games dating back to the 2019 CFP National Championship Game against Clemson, where it only scored 16.
- Florida was the 31st-straight SEC East Opponent that Alabama has beaten. The Crimson Tide hasn't lost to a team in that division since South Carolina in 2010.
- Saturday's captains were offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood, Smith, and cornerback Patrick Surtain II.
