Jam Miller, Tim Keenan injury updates: Kalen DeBoer addresses status ahead of looming return

No. 14 Alabama (2-1) enters its first bye weekend of the season having bounced back from its disappointing season-opening loss at Florida State with back-to-back impressive wins over Louisiana-Monroe and Wisconsin. And the week of rest comes at the perfect time for a pair of Crimson Tide starters that are working their way back from preseason injuries.

Alabama has been without starting senior running back Jam Miller (collarbone) and senior defensive tackle Tim Keenan III (ankle) through the first three weeks of the regular season, but both have made significant progress in their respective rehabs and second-year Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer has expressed confidence both could be ready when Alabama opens SEC play Sept. 27 at No. 5 Georgia.

Both Miller and Keenan have been able to participate in pregame warmups the past two weeks, though neither have seen any actual playing time this season.

“(Miller has) got some explosiveness, he’s got great strength. We really count on him, and he had a great Fall camp, so hopefully it doesn’t take him long to get back into the swing of things,” DeBoer said of Miller on Monday during his annual off-week appearance at the Monday Morning Quarterback Club meeting in Birmingham.

“Yeah, we’ve got a number of guys that are day-to-day, and he would certainly be one of them,” DeBoer said of Miller last Monday. “We’re optimistic that there could be a chance. You know, I really don’t think we’ll know until we get later in the week. … You saw him in pregame. He was out there doing some things, aggressively trying to continue to push forward. You can see that with Jam. He’s chomping at the bit.”

DeBoer was less confident about Keenan, who underwent a TightRope surgical proceedure last month to address a high-ankle sprain suffered this preseason.

“I think with any injury there’s a volume increase that has to happen in a progression. This week we’ll keep building on a few of the things (Keenan) did last week,” DeBoer added Monday. “I don’t know what that would be yet at this point, it kind of depends on the progress he makes. But, yeah, I don’t anticipate that he’ll be able to just play a full game with the number of snaps he would if he was completely healthy.”

Keenan, an Alabama team captain, went viral last week after appearing to get in DeBoer’s ear with some sort of motivational speech. DeBoer nodded as Keenan spoke.

“That’s just TK,” DeBoer said. “He loves this team, and he’s been nothing but the high-end support and giving everything you got.”

— On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.