The Alabama Crimson Tide pulled out an incredible victory over South Carolina, but the win may have come at a high cost along the offensive line. Starting right tackle Jayvin James was seen walking to the locker room with a boot on his foot, and he wasn’t the only lineman to go down. Starting left guard William Sanders also suffered some sort of injury during the game, with no postgame update provided on his status.

Kalen DeBoer’s early comments on the Javon James injury

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer offered a brief but telling response when asked about James after the game. DeBoer said, “With Jayvin going down, we’ll kind of see what that looks like here in the next couple of days.”

I expect DeBoer to elaborate during Monday afternoon’s presser, but right now there’s a chance Alabama is heading to Starkville to face Mississippi State without two of its starting offensive linemen. The Crimson Tide already played the South Carolina game without Justin Hill and Desmond Zulu. Whether either of them will be available against Mississippi State remains unclear.

Why this matters heading into the Mississippi State matchup

If Alabama heads to Starkville down even one starting offensive lineman, it would be a massive deal. If the Crimson Tide are missing two, the situation becomes even more concerning, because this game really should be the game of the week.

College GameDay is heading to Iowa City for Iowa versus Ohio State. But make no mistake, everybody in the country is going to be tuned in next Saturday at 11 a.m. CT when Alabama and Mississippi State go toe-to-toe with arguably the two best quarterbacks in the conference, maybe in the entire sport, in Keelon Russell and Kamario Taylor.

Alabama got a massive win over South Carolina, but the offensive line situation could determine how prepared the Crimson Tide are for what looks like a marquee SEC showdown in Starkville.