Kalen DeBoer shows confidence in unlikely hero for Alabama's offense as Kadyn Proctor is still nursing injury

Part of what has made Alabama football so unstoppable over the last two decades has been their depth across the board at every single position. When some star player goes down there's yet another remarkable talent ready to step up in his place. And that's exactly what happened for the Crimson Tide in Week 1.

Just about 30 minutes before kickoff, star offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor sustained an injury in pre-game activities, leading the team to turn to an unlikely hero along the offensive line. Elijah Pritchett, a player who had been practicing at right tackle some this fall for Alabama, found out he was going to have slide in at starting left tackle just before kickoff and apparently performed admirably.

In fact, according to head coach Kalen DeBoer, the whole team impressed as "there was no panic across the board" from his offensive unit. There was so little panic, in fact, that Alabama went on to absolutely annihilate Western Kentucky 63-0. While many other power conference teams struggled even to handle their FCS opponents, Alabama crushed the souls of the Hilltoppers.

When asked about Kadyn Proctor (on multiple occasions this week), head coach Kalen DeBoer's answer was largely the same in regards to his availability this weekend:

"[Kadyn Proctor] is working towards it. We'll have to see right towards the end of the week. If it was up to him, you know, he'd probably be out there. But we've got to be smart...We've got to be smart and careful. And he's doing really well. He's pretty much living in the training room. He's got strong aspirations to get on the field as fast as possible."

Of course, Kadyn Proctor wants to get back on the field for Alabama as soon as possible, but given that the Crimson Tide should be able to take care of business against South Florida this week there's no need to rush him back and risk further injury.

However, Alabama fans likely remember last year's fiasco against USF amid a monsoon of a storm. This time around the team won't be messing with installing a new quarterback or fighting through near hurricane conditions for half the game, but they're still likely going to be relying on Elijah Pritchett to hold up at left tackle once again. When asked about Pritchett this week, DeBoer had this to say:

"Yeah, [Elijah Pritchett] got thrown into [playing left tackle] on Saturday. Maybe all but the first three or four practices, maybe a couple more early in fall camp, he was at right tackle ever since then. So just 30 minutes before kickoff, all of a sudden, you're realizing you're going to be the starting left tackle now. [I'm] really proud of the way he responded. It didn't feel like he was overwhelmed in any way. He took a lot of snaps, actually most of his snaps this spring, at left tackle along next to Tyler Booker. So that was very helpful...A lot of those reps were really valuable for him feeling comfortable on Saturday."

The Alabama Crimson Tide actually gave 10 different offensive lineman at least 25 snaps throughout the game as the victory was well in hand early on, but Pritchett was clearly attacked early on by Western Kentucky. And despite the extra attention sent his way by the Hilltoppers' defense Pritchett largely held up. He did give up one sack, but looked like he could be a fine answer on the left side next to Tyler Booker if called upon yet again.

Alabama's depth of elite talent looks like it's struck again. The Crimson Tide should have no problem crushing USF this week if Elijah Pritchett and the offensive line continues to dominate once again.

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