Nick Saban reveals importance of Tyler Booker to Alabama offense

Tyler Booker was held out of last week’s 17-3 win over USF due to back spasms despite being dressed out and serving as a team captain during pregame. He’s expected back this week, and Alabama head coach Nick Saban is ecstatic to have his star offensive lineman back in the mix.

Saban is hoping Booker’s return will be the catalyst in jump-starting the Crimson Tide offense after last week’s identity crisis.

“He’s the leader of the group. The guy is a tremendous competitor, he’s a great player and he’s very smart. He can really help the people around him play better because he’s a communicator,” Saban said during his radio show on Thursday. “A lot of guys that play don’t really know how to play and communicate at the same time. In other words, they won’t make calls, they won’t realize the importance of everyone being on the same page.

“He does a really good job of that, and he was playing right guard and we moved him to left guard because we knew we would have an inexperienced left tackle regardless of which guy played. … We put him there so he could help the left tackle make calls and show good communication. When he didn’t play last week, it didn’t help that position, either. There’s an accumulative effect sometimes when you lose a guy that’s a leader and a vocal guy. It impacts the whole group.”

Earlier this week, Booker gave a slight update on his back during his media availability. He revealed that the Alabama training staff recommended that he, “sit out this game and really heal up rather than going in the game and possibly making it worse.”

Booker praised redshirt sophomore Terrence Ferguson for stepping up and playing a “great game,” in his place during his absence. Still, without the centerpiece of their OL, Alabama would allow five sacks for the second week in a row — something that would be detrimental to their winning effort this week against a formidable SEC West opponent.

Now, Booker and the No. 13 Crimson Tide have their sights set on their Week 4 matchup against No. 15 Ole Miss. Alabama will enter the weekend as a 6.5-point favorite over the Rebels in Tuscaloosa, per Vegas Insider, and the over/under total has been set at 55.5 points.

Opening kickoff between the ranked conference foes is set for 3:30 p.m. ET live on CBS.