On his third catch, he was brought down at the Western Carolina 4-yard line and rolled into the end zone in obvious pain.
“Coop just has a bruised knee,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said after the game. “He could’ve gone back in the game and played – we don’t have a problem with him.”
Alabama has a knack for finding someone to step up when a starter goes down. When center Ryan Kelly was injured at Ole Miss, Bradley Bozeman filled in for two games.
When Cooper went down, true freshman Cam Sims stepped up. The next play, Alabama scored on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Blake Sims to Cam Sims.
Cam Sims wasn’t the only young receiver to play, with Chris Black, Robert Foster and ArDarius Stewart also stepping in. The chemistry was good, Blake Sims said.
“They work very hard in practice, and we’re just happy that they came in and did what they had to do,” Blake Sims said.
Alabama’s offense had trouble getting momentum after five of its players went down injured. Only one – Jalston Fowler – returned. Offensive lineman Cam Robinson didn’t return after an ankle sprain on the same play Fowler left with an injury. Wide receiver ArDarius Stewart went down with what Saban said was a stretched knee ligament, the same injury that sidelined tight end Brian Vogler.
“I hope all of those guys that were injured are OK,” Western Carolina coach Mark Speir said. “This was our Super Bowl and our guys don’t want to hurt anybody.”
Running back T.J. Yeldon, wide receiver DeAndrew White and placekicker Adam Griffith were held out of the game to avoid recurring problems, Saban said.
In the wake of these injuries, the offense looked to new players to get the job done. Quarterbacks Blake Sims and Jake Coker looked to 11 different players, six of whom play a receiver position to net 337 yards passing.
Black put up 101 yards receiving on six catches. It was his first 100-yard game at Alabama.
“It feels great,” Black said. “I haven’t done that since high school, so it’s definitely something to be proud of and something to build on.”
The ground game pounded away at the Catamounts, notching 275 yards and three touchdowns. The Crimson Tide averaged 6.1 yards per carry.
Sophomore running back Derrick Henry led the running corp with 92 net yards rushing. He ran in two touchdowns and caught another.
Freshman Tyren Jones worked his way to 75 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, good for second on the team.
Blake Sims was 17-for-25. He totaled 222 yards in the air and lost a yard on the ground. He threw two touchdowns and had one interception, his first in 158 pass attempts.
“I put that all on me,” Blake Sims said. “Maybe they [receivers] were asking me a question, and I probably didn’t throw the ball right so that was all my fault.”
Coker started the second half. He went 12 for 18 and threw one touchdown, a 12-yard pass to tight end Michael Nysewander in the third quarter.
“Jake’s done a really good job,” Saban said. “He’s been a great team guy. He’s been very supportive of the other players. He does a good job of trying to prepare for the games, knowing that his opportunity could come at any time, and I actually thought he played better and managed the game better today than what he did the last time he had the chance to play.”
Alabama put up 612 yards of offense. It is the sixth time this season the Crimson Tide has put up 500-plus yards of offense. Alabama also put up a record 36 first downs against the Catamounts.
Despite the numbers put up on offense, the Crimson Tide had to pull together a drive to come back after Western Carolina took a 7-0 lead on the opening drive.
“We were as flat as a pancake when we went out there today, so I didn’t do a very good job,” Saban said. “I really thought our guys practiced pretty well all week and didn’t look at this game as if, they really tried to keep focus. They tried to keep the momentum of what we’ve been doing going. But when we went out there for pregame warm-ups today, I was really surprised that we didn’t have a little more energy and a little more juice than we did. We had to play our way into it.”
