While, after much conjecture and speculation, Alabama’s head coach will be there for the Tide’s postseason game, one of his starting offensive linemen won’t.
Nick Saban confirmed Tuesday that right guard Anthony Steen will be unavailable for the Sugar Bowl game against Oklahoma due to injury. The lineman underwent surgery recently to repair a lingering shoulder injury.
Saban said Steen played the second half of the season with the injury, but that, after further evaluation by UA’s medical staff, it was decided that “it would not be good that Anthony continue to play so we went ahead and got fixed.”
Steen has started all 26 games the past two seasons, and started 35 in his Tide career.
After announcing Steen wouldn’t be available for the bowl game, Saban said he’s weighing several options as a potential replacement, including Kellen Williams, Alphonse Taylor (no relation),Grant Hill and Chad Lindsay.
“I think Shank (Alphonse Taylor) has played there, Kellen Williams has played there,” Saban said Tuesday according to the Anniston Star. “We kind of felt like Grant Hill may be a guy that we look at guard at some point in time, so we may look at him there for a few days. We feel like one of the centers could move over there and play guard if we needed them to. We have several options. I think we want to try to look at all those things the next, at least these first four practices, where we’re really fundamentally working on things and see what the best combinations would be for us.”