I was hoping to see Jerome Ford play also. I really like him.
I went to the Nick at Noon lunch Friday. Someone asked him a question about team leadership. He said in the past he picks a leadership team for the year, but sometimes those leaders would slack off and be "bad leaders"/show bad leadership. So, this year he picks a leadership team each week.
The leadership team makes some decisions. If a player gets a certain amount of "points" for not doing what they are supposed to be doing (late for class, etc) , it means they won't play in that next game. Saban said there were 2 players for the Ole Miss game that were on the verge of not getting to play based on that. He made it sound like the leadership team decides. Then he said some fans may say, "But what if we lose because those players did not play?" . Saban said something to the effect of "It's not my fault if the players can't follow the rules". They know what the rules and consequences are.
So, maybe Jerome Ford was one of those players. I don't think he was injured, so who knows why. He never mentioned names. Saban said a lot of good things, especially about his leadership philosophy. Another thing he said was that Lia was kind of wondering why he wasn't getting more snaps with the 2's in practice. He talked with him and gave him an example of when AJ Macarron had a similar situation and got mad about his lack of playing time at one point. Saban basically told Lia he had to show leadership on the scout team before some things could happen. Sure enough, Lia got scout team player of the week the next week.
I sure would like to know the details of his leadership plan, point system, etc. Most everything Saban talks about is interesting and fascinating to me.