Wednesday, Nick Saban said “today will kind of be the day” as it pertained to possibly getting a better handle on the availability of Julio Jones this weekend.
Following practice, the wide receiver’s status was still up in the air and no decision was made on his availability. However, the fact that he wasn’t in a black no-contact jersey -- which he was on Tuesday -- is perhaps a significant sign that the scales may have begun tipping toward his being available for Alabama’s game with Ole Miss.
“Julio practiced today. He didn’t have any problems from what he did (Tuesday),” Saban said. “We’ll just evaluate these things day to day. ...He was able to catch balls today. He did run routes, he did practice with everybody else. We’ll just continue to evaluate his progress.”
Jones underwent surgery earlier in the week to have a metal plate inserted into his broken hand. He has been cleared by the medical staff to play as long as his pain tolerance will allow.
Based on the fact that Jones played the rest of the game last weekend after breaking a bone in the palm of his hand, we’d say his threshold for pain is fairly high.