Alabama virtually clinched a No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff with a merciless 54-16 win against Florida on Saturday in the Georgia Dome, but it did suffer one piece of bad news.
Starting middle linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton, entering the game second on the team with 63 total tackles, appeared to suffer a non-contact injury to his knee in the first quarter and did not return to the game. Coach Nick Saban said after the game that his season is "probably" over.
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“Shaun Dion has a knee. He’s probably going to be out for the year,” Saban said during his postgame news conference. “He’ll be missed, but we have a lot of confidence in Rashaan (Evans), and he did a good job for us today.”
Hamilton returned to the field for the team's celebration after the game with crutches and what appeared to be ice on his injured knee.
Shaun Dixon Hamilton on crutches. Will get update from Saban in a bit. pic.twitter.com/Cm26NvHEPE
— John Zenor (@jzenor) December 4, 2016
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While the injury is inconvenient for Alabama, they have a pretty solid next-guy-up philosophy that has worked thus far.