Crimson Tide RB Damien Harris suffers concussion in win over Citadel

Alabama running back Damien Harris suffered what coach Nick Saban described as a "mild" concussion during a 50-17 win against The Citadel at home on Saturday.

Harris, a senior and the team's leading rusher, sustained a big hit during the third quarter. Trainers tended to him for several minutes, checking for a neck injury, but found none, according to Saban. Harris did not return to the game.

Harris led Alabama with 83 rushing yards on seven carries Saturday, including a 73-yard run. He has 678 rushing yards this season, with seven touchdowns.

Offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood twisted his ankle, according to Saban. Safety Deionte Thompson bruised his knee, but Saban said it did not appear to be a significant injury.

Alabama struggled early against The Citadel, going into halftime tied 10-10 before rebounding in the second half to win by 33.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who has been dealing with leg injuries for much of the season, passed for 340 yards and three touchdowns. He threw his 31st touchdown of the season, breaking Alabama's single-season record, which was previously held by AJ McCarron.

Well hi, it’s Week 12 of the college football season and folks, Alabama had its worst half of the entire season against none other than 4-5 FCS team The Citadel during what’s supposed to be the SEC’s cupcake week. Bama was easily able to pull away in the second half and win 50-17, but The Citadel’s first half was glorious.

1. THE CITADEL TIED BAMA AT 10 IN THE FIRST HALF.
Drink it in, folks.

The first half spread had Alabama -42!

2. Alabama gave up more yards in the first half than it did all season.
Nick Saban’s defense had given up fewer than 100 yards on defense in the first half all season. The Citadel had 149 yards of total offense in the first half alone. The Citadel runs the triple option, a hard system to defend, especially when you have a week to prepare.

Running the ball that much also helps keep possessions down (Bama only had four in the first half), limiting the damage the more talented team can do.

“It’s very challenging because it’s obviously different from anything that we see (with any regularity),” Saban said earlier this week. “We did spend some time (working against it) in fall camp. We did spend some time during the bye week trying to get our players to have a little better understanding of what they need to do and how they need to play it.”

3. This was by far the worst first half for Alabama so far this season.

The Tide entered this game first in the nation in beating its first-half point spreads, putting up big leads at the break every single week.

4. The Citadel scored the longest rushing touchdown Bama’s defense has given up in years!

5. The Tide needed 12 and a half minutes to score on offense — nearly six times longer than usual for Alabama.
Until the LSU game on Nov. 3, Bama scored in the first two minutes of every game this season.

6. Tis Alabama fan drove nearly 800 miles to watch all that.

7. The Citadel’s Twitter account was having so much fun.
Here it called out two SEC West teams who got shut out by the Tide:

8. Saban already hated facing flexbone teams.
This isn’t all that surprising — triple-option military academies are a combined 36-11-1 against huge point spreads since 1995. The Citadel isn’t technically Army, Navy, or Air Force, but it is similar in some ways. And anyone who picked The Citadel to cover the 53-point spread enjoyed that first half, to say the least.

Saban hasn’t exactly taken FCS and triple option teams lightly. He once had this had this unforgettable quote about Georgia Southern in 2011:

Alabama scored quickly in the second half and ended up winning comfortably, but hey, it was fun while it lasted!