Staying ready helped Alabama OL Jaeden Roberts in first-ever start

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama made a change at right guard during last weekend’s game at Texas A&M with redshirt sophomore Jaeden Roberts starting at the position in place of Darrian Dalcourt, who started the first five games but was dealing with a shoulder problem.

Roberts played all 59 snaps and finished with the second-highest, pass-blocking grade for the Crimson Tide at 76.0 percent, according to Pro Football Focus. He allowed one sack and one pressure in his first-ever start in front of 108,101 fans. After getting a chance to watch the film, Alabama head coach Nick Saban evaluated Robert’s performance on Monday.

“I love to see guys like him, who have worked hard for two whole years and in his third year, gets an opportunity, especially in his home state, to go out and play,” said Saban to kick off Arkansas week. “The guy has a good physical presence. He played hard in the game. 

“It’s really tough when you have a guy that practiced all week and then he’s not able to play in the game and the next guy’s got to go in. He didn’t have the same opportunities to prepare, but I thought Jaeden did a pretty good job of managing it and handling it and played with a lot of grit, determination and toughness and executed fairly well.”

Saturday in College Station, Texas, was the seventh career appearance and fourth of the 2023 season for Roberts. Prior to the 26-20 win over the Aggies, the previous snaps for the Houston native were all as a reserve. The 6-foot-5, 316-pound offensive lineman is listed as the backup right guard behind Dalcourt, and with the latter being out – as well as Terrence Ferguson, who is the Tide’s next man up at either guard position – Roberts got his shot.

“He balled out,” said Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe on Monday. “It just came from trust and just knowing and believing in him. He’s just a great competitor, great heart, and if you know him, you just know how hard he works. So just to see him have an opportunity to play this weekend was awesome. Jaeden did his thing.”

The Alabama offense struggled to run the football and committed 10 penalties in the road game. Nine of those were pre-snap infractions, with Roberts being responsible for back-to-back flags in the fourth quarter. But overall, the Crimson Tide offensive line held up well in pass protection to allow Milroe to throw for a career-high 321 yards and lead UA to a win.

Roberts’ ability to step in and not look out of place was due to his preparation, according to Tide right tackle JC Latham, who played alongside the redshirt sophomore for all 59 snaps.

“He’s definitely been working hard, especially throughout this whole offseason,” Latham said on Tuesday.” I’m extremely proud of him. He did a great job. I think he understood that he would have the opportunity to play a couple weeks ago against USF when Tyler Booker was hurt. That kind of knocked him up with everybody else being down.

“Ever since then, you just see his intensity and his laser focus just sharpened a lot more. In pregame, we made the decision to not play Dalcourt and Jaeden was going to start, and he was already ready, so I had nothing but confidence in him.”

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