Motley's injury hurts

A fractured ankle suffered by Alabama nose tackle Brian Motley in Tuesday afternoon's practice is not only a bad break --- literally --- for the redshirt freshman, but could also have major repercussions for the Crimson Tide defense this season.
Motley is expected to miss 6-8 weeks with the injury, which will basically sideline him for the season. Even if he returns on the front end of that projection, he's still out half the year.
Thanks to the new rotating game week interview schedule at Alabama, head coach Nick Saban did not meet with reporters on Tuesday afternoon. He first addressed Motley's injury in Wednesday morning's SEC coaches teleconference.
"Brian Motley did fracture his ankle in practice yesterday," Saban said. "It's unfortunate for him. He had a broken hand about 10 days ago and a fractured ankle now. He just came back to practice for a few days. He'll be out for probably six to eight weeks."
In Motley's absence, sophomore Lorenzo Washington gets a chance to start for the first time in his career. Washington has been something of a disappointment at Alabama thus far, a highly touted high school player who has never shown much on the college level for one reason or another.
After Washington, true freshman Alfred McCullough of Athens is apparently the back-up. Saban has had good things to say about true freshman Josh Chapman of Hoover throughout fall camp, but said Wednesday that McCullough is now the No. 2 nose tackle.
"We're obviously going to have to use some of our freshmen players," Saban said. "We'll see who are the guys we feel are most ready to play right now. We really don't want to move someone this late in the week that plays a different position to that position. We'll probably do it with McCullough or some of the freshmen players we have that play that position."
The loss of Motley's isn't likely to mean much this week against Western Carolina. Alabama could probably play without its entire starting lineup and beat the Catamounts handily (WCU went 2-9 last season and was outscored 114-9 in its last three games).
But beyond Saturday, Motley's loss really hurts. Alabama plays power-running Arkansas in two weeks and will need all the run-stuffers it can get, particularly with the status of sophomore inside linebacker Prince Hall still up in the air.
Alabama had been fortunate with injuries this fall up until Tuesday, but that has certainly changed now.