Alabama Needs a Healthy T.J. Yeldon Against Mississippi State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The big question hanging over the Alabama football team has been the status of T.J. Yeldon.

Alabama’s leading rusher was dealing with a foot injury during the bye week and in the lead-up to the LSU game. Then, late in the matchup against the Tigers, he sprained his ankle, which has limited him in practice this week.

Alabama coach Nick Saban has been noncommittal on his status this week, only saying that he’s improving and doing more everyday. And during media viewing periods at practice this week, Yeldon appeared to be more involved with each passing day.

Saban gave his most informative update Thursday night on his weekly radio show.

"I think he'll be able to play in the game. How explosive he'll be in the game remains to be seen," Saban said, per Andrew Gribble of AL.com. "The kind of injury he has is something you can play with but if he practices too much, it really aggravates him. We just try to practice him enough so he's ready to play. He's certainly had a great season for us."

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That uncertainty should be a cause for concern for Alabama fans. Yeldon has been one of Alabama’s best offensive players.

And with the Crimson Tide’s running back depth already as thin as it is, it needs a healthy T.J. Yeldon when it faces Mississippi State on Saturday.

Yeldon leads Alabama with 686 rushing yards and has been a reliable workhorse for the Crimson Tide, now in his third year in the offense.

He’s split carries with Derrick Henry (and Kenyan Drake before his injury) this season, a running back setup Saban has been fond of on offense. But there’s no question who the feature back is in the offense.

“I think it’s huge [to have Yeldon healthy],” right tackle Austin Shepherd said. “We’re not thin, thin at running back, but I consider him one of our best players and a leader on the offense. I think it’s huge to have him.”

Shepherd’s right. Alabama isn’t necessarily thin at running back in terms of talent or bodies. But when you take game experience into account, that picture changes.

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Drake was the third part of a three-headed monster for Alabama. Offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin found a lot of creative ways to use the speedster in the run and passing game before he suffered a brutal leg break against Ole Miss.

He was also Alabama’s only other running back with a lot of in-game experience.

Senior fullback Jalston Fowler has carried the ball at times during his career as a running back. At 6’1”, 248 pounds, though, he isn’t exactly a candidate for a lot of carries.

Behind them are a pair of former 4-star recruits who have shown ability but have only played sparingly.

Sophomores Altee Tenpenny and redshirt freshman Tyren Jones have gotten 15 and 22 carries this season, respectively. Those have mostly come late in out-of-hand games.

So depending on how limited Yeldon is, that would leave only Henry for the offense to lean on against the No. 1 team in the country.

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“Derrick Henry has played well for us all year long,” Saban said. “I thought he probably had his best game up at Tennessee. We have total confidence in him as a player. We thought he played well in the last game. ... He's been very productive this year, has played very well for us. I think it's going to be important for him to continue to do that because his role's probably going to get expanded even more as we get late in the season here.”

Alabama’s situation isn’t ideal, but it’s an enviable problem to have. Its star running back gets banged up, and it has 4- and 5-star talent behind him to pick up the slack.

But as the Crimson Tide hit this last stretch of the season against two Top 10 teams, they need their workhorse back to be as healthy as possible.

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats come from cfbstats.

Follow on Twitter: @marctorrence.