You would be hard-pressed to find a college football player who has been through the type of adversity that Alabama running back Trey Sanders has over the last few years.
Sanders suffered a foot injury which kept him sidelined for his entire freshman season. Then, in November of his sophomore season, Sanders was in a horrific car accident, that required Sanders to be hospitalized.
Sanders returned to the gridiron for the 2021 season and steadily became a little more involved in the offense. Even still, you could see that Sanders had not quite returned to his five-star form.
On Tuesday, Sanders had a chance to speak to the media and he had this to say.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs, but I say these past couple of years, it really helped me. Helped me a lot because were it not for what happened the past couple of years, I wouldn’t be the man standing in front of you today.”
“So, I feel like that has helped me a lot. Going through that adversity, coming back and seeing what I was capable of myself — mentally and physically. So I feel like at this point right now, I’m a lot more ready now than I was my freshman year.”
Sanders also had this to say about coach Nick Saban’s role in his recovery.
“I think Coach Saban was one of the main persons who kept me going throughout the process because there was times where I felt like I couldn’t do it,” Sanders revealed. “There were times where I was in a wheelchair and I was just rolling around the facility, going out to practice and watching other dudes practice and stuff like that. I wasn’t able to go out there and practice, and Coach Saban would call me into meetings and he’d talk to me and he’d give me hope on the future.
“Each time he talked to me, he gave me hope and he just gave me a better outlook on how I want to come out of my injury and come out of my car wreck. I felt like having someone on my side, that’s helped me a lot, most definitely. That was the main part, he’s played a big part in it.”
That is going to put a bow on our Wednesday edition of Alabama Morning Drive. I hope everyone has a great hump day.
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