Where does Alabama turn for pass rushing after season ending injury to Que Robinson?

While Alabama football scored a massive win in Death Valley over LSU on Saturday night, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Alabama's best edge rusher, senior Que Robinson, went down with an injury. The initial prognosis points to Robinson missing the remainder of the season.

Robinson's injury is a big blow to an already thin position. Robinson has been listed as a co-starter at Wolf with redshirt freshman Qua Russaw. Russaw has handled the early downs and Robinson has been used as a situational edge rusher. He was the most experienced pass rusher on the roster coming into the season and is tied with Jihaad Campbell for the team lead with four sacks.

Alabama could really ill afford any injuries or any type of bad news. It was reported before Saturday's game that junior Keanu Koht - a backup Wolf - did not travel with the team to Baton Rouge. There should be some sort of update on that during Kalen DeBoer's media availability tomorrow. I wouldn't expect it to be a good one.

How does Alabama replace Que Robinson?

First and foremost, this puts a lot on Russaw's plate. He's had a strong redshirt freshman season and looks like a future star, but playing every snap at the position is taxing and he's not the refined pass rusher that Robinson is.

He's got the talent, but he's still raw as a rusher. He's done a great job setting the edge and there's a reason he's started almost every game he's been healthy for.

With Koht's status up in the air, another redshirt freshman from Russaw's class, Yhonzae Pierre, could see his snaps increase. He's played sparingly throughout the season, mostly in garbage time, but has popped on tape.

One other interesting scenario would be to shift Jihaad Campbell to Wolf on obvious passing downs and let him pin his ears back. I think Campbell is the most phyiscally gifted pass rusher on the roster, and a smart NFL team is going to utilize him a lot like how the Dallas Cowboys utilize Micah Parsons.

Shifting Campbell to the edge to rush allows you to put Justin Jefferson on the field to play Mike next to Dentae Lawson, and ensures that Russaw doesn't burn out from too many snaps.

Fortunately for Alabama, Mercer will provide the kind of game that will allow for some experimentation.