Alabama's depth takes a hit, as Tide lose HB and DB on the same day
In a rather rare occurrence, the Alabama Crimson Tide have lost a signee already enrolled in school due to the player being ruled academically ineligible.
Four-star running back, and early enrollee, DeSherrius Flowers will not play this season for the Tide despite being enrolled at the university since January.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Flowers lost his ability to play this season "due to a recently discovered initial eligibility issue."
Flowers' high school coach, Ashley Johnson, spoke about his former players situation after the news broke.
“I’m sure he’s disappointed about this,” Johnson said. “But after the initial reaction wears off, he’s like me in the way that he’ll find the positives out of it. I’m sure Coach Saban and the staff are pointing those out to him. As far as his career, this is nothing. This isn’t even hardly a bump in the road. In fact, there are some advantages are some advantages of this – you get more acquainted with school, and you get more acquainted with (the football program). You’re only going to be bigger and better going into the next year."
Flowers becomes the fourth running back lost this offseason for Alabama, joining Tyren Jones (dismissed for marijuana possession), Altee Tenpenny (transfer to UNLV) and Bo Scarbrough (knee injury).
The Tides' four-man rotation now becomes three as Derrick Henry, Kenyon Drake and freshman Damien Harris are expected to garner most of the backfield touches.
To make matters worse, Nick Saban announced that sophomore defensive back Jonathan Cook is "no longer a member of the team." Saban gave no other details at this time for this decision.