Alabama will be without star TE Josh Cuevas in the Iron Bowl. He was officially listed as "OUT" on the Crimson Tide's initial availability report, which was released on Wednesday night.
Cuevas suffered an injury to his foot during practice last week and missed Alabama's game against Eastern Illinois. While reports immediately indicated that Cuevas was likely to miss the Iron Bowl, Kalen DeBoer was non-committal to that point when asked about it during his Monday press conference.
Wednesday night's news brought the reality that was feared. Ty Simpson and the Alabama offense will be without one of its most reliable targets. Cuevas is the team's fourth-leading receiver and has been the safety valve for Simpson in recent weeks. In the last game he played in, Cuevas had a season-high 80 yards on six receptions against Oklahoma. For the season, the Washington transfer has caught 30 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns.
With Cuevas out, Alabama will likely lean on a pair of freshman tight ends against Auburn. Kaleb Edwards, who has played in all 11 games, starting three, is likely to start in his place. Fellow freshman Marshall Pritchett saw significant playing time last week against Eastern Illinois to prepare him to play in this game.
Josh Cuevas among several new names on the Alabama injury report
Cuevas wasn't the only new name added to a lengthy Alabama availability report this week.
RB Kevin Riley, LB Abudall Sanders, and DB Kameron Howard are also listed as out for the game. TE Danny Lewis Jr., who has oftentimes been listed as questionable this season, is already ruled out for Saturday's game at Jordan-Hare.
WR Germie Bernard, C Parker Brailsford, and LB QB Reese are all listed as "Probable." Bernard and Brailsford sat out last week's game against Eastern Illinois as a precautionary measure.
Sanders and Howard are depth pieces, but the redshirt freshman Riley had recently begun to see an uptick in playing time after having an inconsistent role for most of the season. With Riley out, Alabama will likely lean heavily on Daniel Hill and Jam Miller, while also potentially opening up a change-of-pace role for freshman AK Dear.
Dear looked impressive last week on a few runs against Eastern Illinois and could potentially make a difference for the Crimson Tide. With everything on the line in the Iron Bowl, however, DeBoer and Ryan Grubb are likely to rely on Hill and Miller, the guys who have proven they can step up in key situations.