Nick Saban updates injuries of CJ Dippre, Trezmen Marshall

Alabama slid past Arkansas 24-21 in a gritty SEC matchup in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. With a matchup that physical, it’s academic that a few players will be lost to injuries throughout the afternoon.

That ended up being the case, and two players who were banged up during the matchup — tight end CJ Dippre and linebacker Trezmen Marshall — had their injury statuses updated after the game. However, Saban would not specify who had which ailment during the postgame presser.

“I don’t think they’re badly hurt. One guy has a pulled muscle and the other guy has bruised ribs,” Saban said postgame. “I can’t tell you the extent of their injuries. We don’t know that yet.”

Whether either injury requires an MRI or further testing remains to be seen, but Saban would love to have both Dippre and Marshall back on the field before the Crimson Tide’s road trip to No. 19 Tennessee next weekend.

Nick Saban wants Alabama to learn how to beat opponent, rather than just win

Alabama survived a surprisingly close contest against Arkansas on Saturday, winning 24-21 after opening up an 18-point lead in the contest. Coach Nick Saban wasn’t thrilled.

His team essentially hit a wall in the third quarter and allowed the Razorbacks to get back into it.

“I’ll tell you like I told the team, it’s great to win, it’s great to be where we are in the SEC relative to how we’ve progressed,” Saban said. “But there’s a difference between beating the other team and winning the game. We played pretty well in the game up till 24-6, which was about halfway through the third quarter. And then we didn’t finish.”

Alabama had significant edges in most of the major statistical categories in the game.

The Crimson Tide outgained the Razorbacks 415 to 250 while limiting the Hogs to just 4-of-14 on third down attempts. Arkansas had to play from behind throughout the game.

But after falling behind big, the Razorbacks buckled down and battled back. Some self-inflicted mistakes by the Crimson Tide aided in the comeback attempt.

“We got penalties. I mean the whole momentum of the game is on a third-down stop we get a grabbing a guy by the facemask after the play, which to me is bad,” Nick Saban said. “You can say what you want, but a guy does that he’s putting himself ahead of what’s best for the team. Putting yourself in harm’s way of having a chance to win. And then they go down the field and score. The momentum of the game changes. We go three-and-out on offense, have a couple of dropped balls, miss a couple of throws and not hitting on all cylinders, let the other team back in the game.”

Read more from On3’s Staff Report here.