Eating, talking, playing: Forristall back to normal
There were startling setbacks every month last season for Alabama, which fell short of the College Football Playoff for the first time.
In August, inside linebackers Dylan Moses and Joshua McMillon suffered ACL tears, while five-star freshman running back Trey Sanders broke his foot. A season-ending foot injury claimed defensive end LaBryan Ray in September, and the most notable injury of the year was quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s hip dislocation in November.
The most bizarre of Alabama’s injuries occurred in October, when tight end Miller Forristall damaged his throat during the 48-7 win over Arkansas and needed surgery.
“The worst part was not being able to eat, because I couldn’t eat solid foods for a while,” Forristall said this week on a Zoom call. “Yeah, I talk a lot, and everybody knows that. That part was tough, but honestly the eating was way worse. I lose weight so fast.
“I didn’t eat anything solid, and then I started trying to eat stuff too soon, so I had to go back to not having solid food. That definitely wasn’t fun, and it was not the highlight of my fall.”
A freakish aspect of Forristall’s injury was that he was examined by team doctors on the sideline — “We didn’t think it was really a serious injury,” coach Nick Saban would say two days later — and allowed back into the game. He started experiencing more discomfort the day after the victory and wound up sitting out for six weeks.
Forristall returned in time for Alabama’s 35-16 dumping of Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, catching three passes for 36 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown from Mac Jones that put the Crimson Tide up 28-16 with 10:01 remaining in the game.
The 6-foot-5, 244-pound
fifth-year senior from Cartersville, Georgia, had 15 receptions overall last season for 167 yards and four touchdowns. Last year, however, marked the second time he failed to play an Alabama season from start to finish. After redshirting in 2016, Forristall had his 2017 season cut short by a knee injury after only three games.
O.J. Howard and Irv Smith were Alabama’s top tight ends during Forristall’s early time in Tuscaloosa, but a thin position last season became even thinner down the stretch when he was out. Alabama has a deeper and more veteran group of tight ends this time around with the return of Forristall, redshirt junior Major Tennison and sophomore Jahleel Billingsley, plus the addition of North Carolina graduate transfer Carl Tucker.
Forristall welcomes the company and the competition.
“We’ve got a global pandemic going on,” Forristall said, “and you’re never going to know who you’ll be missing one day and who’s going to be out the next.”