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Alabama was hit with a trifecta of bad news over the weekend. First, it was the arrest of Geno Smith for driving under the influence, then in Saturday’s practice receiver Cam Sims suffered a serious knee injury. On Sunday, junior college transfer DT Jonathan Taylor was arrested for domestic violence and was quickly dismissed from the team.
After practice on Monday night, Saban addressed all three of those things.
First up, he confirmed the worst fears about Sims’ injury: the sophomore receiver suffered a torn ACL and will need surgery to repair the injury.
Alabama WR Cam Sims was injured Saturday (ACL) that will require surgery, Saban says. Will be out for “a while.”
— Alex Scarborough (@ByScarborough) March 30, 2015
Sims was expected to step up as one of the players to replace Alabama’s trio of departed receivers. He’d been running with the second team for much of spring practice, but was thought to have a chance to make a big impact in 2015.
Related: Moving forward from a rough weekend at Alabama
Saban then went into discussing Taylor. The coach had previously talked about giving the former Georgia player a second chance; Taylor had a previous domestic violence arrest at Georgia and was dismissed from the Bulldogs after another arrest for double cashing meal reimbursement checks.
Taylor’s signing at Alabama did not work out, which Saban copped to.
Saban on Jonathan Taylor: Everyone got the statement yesterday. I think it's very unfortunate. He came here with specific guidelines.
— Aaron Suttles (@AaronSuttles) March 30, 2015
Saban: “I’m very, very sorry about the way this worked out.”
— Alex Scarborough (@ByScarborough) March 30, 2015
Saban: Although I'm very very sorry about the way this worked out, we'll continue to create opportunities for players.
— Aaron Suttles (@AaronSuttles) March 30, 2015
Saban on Taylor: I certainly don't condone that kind of behavior, especially when it comes to how females are treated.
— John Zenor (@jzenor) March 30, 2015
Saban on if he made a mistake bringing Taylor in: "I'm not sorry for giving him an opportunity. I'm sorry for the way things worked out."
— Marq Burnett (@Marq_Burnett) March 30, 2015
Saban: "It's time to move on" from Jonathan Taylor decision/incident.
— John Zenor (@jzenor) March 30, 2015
Saban said the team and school will examine its evaluation process moving forward but stresses that second chances have worked out before.
— D.C. Reeves (@mayordcreeves) March 30, 2015
Taylor wasn’t the first player Saban and Alabama have given a second chance to; defensive lineman D.J. Pettway was dismissed from the team in 2013 following a burglary arrest, but rejoined the team in 2014 after a year at junior college. Saban said that Alabama will continue to give players chances if they feel they have “the right stuff.”
Finally, Saban dove into Smith’s arrest for DUI. It was the senior safety’s second such offense; he was arrested for DUI in 2013 and was suspended for Alabama’s first game of the season. Despite the second offense, Saban said he will not dismiss Smith from the team.
Saban: I’ve never gotten rid of a guy after a second incident with drug and alcohol issues.
— D.C. Reeves (@mayordcreeves) March 30, 2015
Saban said he never considered kicking Geno Smith off the team. "There is a series of things he has to do" before he can return to the team
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) March 30, 2015
Saban on Geno Smith pic.twitter.com/7VYXqGvMnx
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) March 31, 2015
As you can see in Saban’s above statement, Smith will indeed remain with the team and it sounds like he will likely rejoin practice at some point this spring. While Saban didn’t specify what exactly Smith will have to do to get back on the field, nor did he go into what Smith’s team-issued sanctions would be, it sounds all but assured that Smith will be on the roster for 2015.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
