Alabama Football: Should Rashaan Evans be sitting out for Arkansas?

Alabama football needs Rashaan Evans to be healthy if they want to play for a national title. He is not 100%, so should he play the homecoming game?

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A groin injury is hard to recover from, if a person continues to aggravate it in his day-to-day duties. That’s not even considering using one’s legs to help push aside over 300-pound linemen to get to an opposing quarterback, who may dash away from one’s hobbled self.

That is exactly the situation that Alabama defender Rashaan Evans finds himself in, currently:

Matt Zenitz of AL.com reported Evans’ tweet and stated:

"“The preseason first-team All-SEC selection only missed two games after suffering the injury during Alabama’s season-opening win over Florida State. And while he’s only posted nine tackles in the three games since returning, he’s helped the Crimson Tide limit its three SEC opponents to just 22 total points after allowing 23 points and 391 yards in its win over Colorado State Sept. 16.”"

How is that possible, one may ask? Evans tweeted a month earlier:

Zenitz argues that “Evans was determined to get back as quickly as possible, especially as he saw the defense struggling some without him.”

So, that begs the question: Should Alabama allow Evans to play this Saturday against Arkansas or not?

Alabama is a 98.1% favorite to win against the Razorbacks, according to ESPN‘s Football Power Index. The crowd will be roaring in Bryant-Denny Stadium, as it is Alabama’s Homecoming week. Thousands of alumni and current students will be mingling, marching, and mashing any hope for Arkansas fans to be vocal during the game. With the atmosphere being electric in favor of the Crimson Tide and the Razorbacks seemingly preparing for an inevitable loss, do Tide fans really want to see Evans possibly re-injure himself in this potentially meaningless game?

If one were to ask Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Arkansas’ offense should not be taken lightly: “You can sit here and talk about what they have not done as a team or you can say they should have beaten Texas A&M and they’re very capable of scoring a lot of points and being a very good team.”

Whether injured starting quarterback Austin Allen or freshman backup Cole Kelley suits up to play the Crimson Tide, Alabama’s defense would like to redeem themselves against the the Razorbacks’ respectable aerial assault. Especially after Texas A&M had put some doubts in Tide fans’ minds, last Saturday.

If that is the case, then only a solid pass rush will help Alabama reassert their authority as the number one ranked team in the country. Evans is a big part of that ranking, but pulling him from playing this Saturday significantly hampers that pass rush.

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What is more important? Is it instilling fear in the rest of the competition for the rest of the season, if Alabama feasts on Razorback quarterbacks tomorrow? Or, is it to rest one of the team’s most valuable assets against an opposition that they should handle, even without him?

A groin heals from proper rest, not continuously being put through a grinder while trying to rush the opposition. If Evans re-aggravates his injury, enough to keep him out of say the Auburn game, Alabama may regret playing him this week while missing out on playing in the national championship.