Waddle a game-time decision for Alabama

The Alabama Crimson Tide have been coy about if wide receiver Jaylen Waddle will be on the field in Monday’s national championship game against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Waddle returned to practice Tuesday for the first time since fracturing his right ankle returning the opening kickoff against Tennessee on Oct. 24.

Alabama coach Nick Saban said Waddle will be a “game-time decision.”

“I don’t have any crystal ball to know,” Saban said Thursday of Waddle’s status. “The issue with injuries is when a guy does practice, how does he respond to the workload? Sometimes if a guy practices one day and gets sore the next, you can’t practice him the next day, so you just keep trying to build up his workload to where he might be able to play. So that’s a work in progress right now. You really can’t predict where he might be.”

Ohio State isn’t taking any chances.

“You absolutely have to prepare like he’s going to play,” Buckeyes defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs said, “and I would promise you that he’s an extraordinary athlete, extraordinary receiver.”

Another extraordinary athlete, another extraordinary receiver the Buckeyes would have to deal with.

There’s already Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith and his 105 catches, 1,641 receiving yards and 20 receiving touchdowns. There’s already sophomore John Metchie III, who has thrived in Waddle’s absence (47 catches, 835 receiving yards, six touchdowns).

And there’s already running back Najee Harris, who leads the nation with 24 rushing touchdowns and has 1,387 rushing yards.

Waddle? He very well might be the most explosive of them all. He had 25 catches for 557 yards and four touchdowns in the first four games of the season. That led the Crimson Tide, with Smith sitting second at 483 yards on 38 catches a third of the way through their season.

“We’re going to go play. I don’t think you can play a game scared. I think that would be probably the worst thing you could do,” Coombs said. “But you have to also acknowledge when you’re playing teams that are really, really good at what they do. We acknowledge that, so we understand the challenge that’s ahead of us and we’re preparing to play.”

TWO BROADCASTERS ARE SIDELINED

While the championship game is going on as scheduled despite an initial scare earlier in the week, a pair of ESPN personalities who were supposed to be part of the network’s expansive coverage have been sidelined due to positive COVID-19 tests.

Holly Rowe, who was set to split sideline reporting duties with Maria Taylor, announced her positive test result Friday in a video on Twitter. Rowe said she has experienced symptoms.

“I’ve literally been building toward this moment my whole life,” Rowe, who has worked full-time at ESPN since 1998, said in the video. “But [ESPN analyst and former WNBA star] Rebecca Lobo gave me great advice. She said: ‘Perspective. It’s just a football game.’ So I’m doing well, recovering at home, obviously super sad but there will be other games.”

Todd Blackledge, who was slated to call his fifth consecutive national championship game with Sean McDonough on ESPN Radio, also announced Friday that he tested positive.

“I feel fine & so grateful to have worked through the Rose Bowl,” Blackledge said in a statement via the ESPN public relations’ Twitter account,

“but disappointed to miss Monday night.”

Greg McElroy will replace Blackledge on the ESPN Radio feed.