Kalen DeBoer offers injury update on Jeheim Oatis
The Alabama football team has had some talented players emerge as true freshmen over the years, and Jeheim Oatis is a recent one the Crimson Tide are hoping can continue to progress.
But Oatis has had a quiet spring so far for the Crimson Tide. On Thursday, coach Kalen DeBoer was asked about Oatis’ injury status.
He gave a fairly non-committal answer.
“Yeah I don’t know that. I do know, but I think it’s still kind of relative, kind of up in the air still,” Kalen DeBoer said. “I mean I’m certainly aware of that, obviously.”
Oatis earned Freshman All-SEC recognition from the SEC’s coaches in 2022 after playing in 12 games with 10 starts. He totaled 29 tackles, 2.0 tackles for a loss and a sack, while also recording four quarterback hurries and two pass breakups.
However, Oatis was not a regular starter for the Crimson Tide in 2023. He played in 13 contests but started just three of them.
His numbers were relatively flat.
Oatis tallied 26 tackles, 1.0 tackles for a loss and a half sack, as well as two quarterback hurries and two pass breakups. He did not appear on any award lists following the season.
Alabama, obviously, will be hoping it can get the version of Oatis that looked like a future star as a freshman. Of course, getting on the field this spring would be a key step in that process.
Kalen DeBoer settling into new job
Alabama is going to look a bit different this season. Under new management, the Kalen DeBoer era in Tuscaloosa is set to begin on Aug. 31 against Western Kentucky — but that seems like a lifetime away with spring ball just underway.
As DeBoer gets his feet wet coaching his new team, the new Crimson Tide headman recently explained how much his new reality has set in knowing that he’ll be the Alabama head football coach for the foreseeable future.
“Yeah, I think the work that you’re doing every day kind of supports what the title is, but it’s been awesome,” DeBoer said. “It has been a great couple of months here. It’s been exciting to get the staff in place here and see the guys continue to just grow and do what they came here to do, and that’s getting better and be the best they can be as a football player and football team.”
On3’s Barkley Traux also contributed to this report.