After sustaining a sprained ankle in Alabama’s second preseason scrimmage of fall camp, Jerome Ford return to practice on Thursday.
He has missed roughly a week of action, but the redshirt freshman appeared to be moving well through one viewing period for the media.
The 5-foot-11, 212-pounder took hand-offs from the quarterbacks and went through each positional drill without favoring anything. Since losing Trey Sanders (foot) for the season, Alabama has focused on getting Ford back to full strength.
The combination of he and true freshman, Keilan Robinson, is one that can give the team with quality production.
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In terms of his status for the meeting with Duke, Saban has Ford as “day-to-day.”
“We are going to work him in and see what he can do,” Saban said of Ford.
“We are going to try to do more and more each day, to see if we can get him back to 100 percent. He was doing really well before he was injured. We plan on playing him in the game. If he’s healthy enough and doctors clear him and we feel like he’s 100 percent, we’ll play him. If not, we will have to wait and see how he progresses.”
Ford, a three-star, was the lone running back the Tide signed in its 2018 class.
He’s put on some muscle this offseason and stood out in the Open Practice. Hopefully, Ford will be at full strength for the game versus the Blue Devils next week at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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Stephen M. Smith is the managing editor and senior writer for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can “like” him on Facebook or “follow” him on Twitter, via @CoachingMSmith.
