Alabama football players are improving whether they're competing in games or not.
Senior weakside linebacker Rashaan Evans suffered a groin injury in the 24-7 opening triumph over Florida State in Atlanta and sat out the Crimson Tide's ensuing victories over Fresno State and Colorado State. He returned to the starting lineup last week and led one of the most dominating efforts in Southeastern Conference history, as Alabama limited Vanderbilt to 78 yards on 38 snaps during a 59-0 slaughter in Nashville.
After last Saturday's game, Evans sounded anything but disappointed for having to miss two weeks.
"It sure helped me," Evans said. "I was going through some of the plays that I would be doing if I was out there. I was watching Keith Holcombe and Shaun Dion (Hamilton) and helping those guys as well, and that helped me kind of stay in the game as far as mindset-wise.
"Those two weeks were the best two weeks I could have, especially for my legs."
When veteran Alabama players are out of games, they are not out of sight or out of mind. Evans was dressed in a jersey and sweatpants inside Bryant-Denny Stadium during the Crimson Tide's wins over Fresno State and Colorado State, and he was right in the thick of things on the sideline.
That, according to coach Nick Saban, was by design.
"We try to keep the players who are out very, very involved, especially in practice and in the meetings," Saban said this week. "We believe in mental practice here, so we give those guys a script just like the coaches, and they know what every play is. They try to mentally practice what they do and how they would react to a particular play in practice, so even though they're not physically performing, they're practicing what they do.
"On game day, we want them to try to impact and influence with their leadership as well as stay abreast of the adjustments and things that we do during the game, just like they were playing."
Redshirt sophomore strongside linebacker Anfernee Jennings suffered an ankle injury in the opener and also spent two weeks learning from the sideline before returning last Saturday. Jennings forced a fumble late in the first quarter that the Tide turned into a 26-yard touchdown drive to take a 21-0 lead.
Evans also made an immediate impact, throwing 6-foot-6, 316-pound Commodores tackle Bailey Granier to the ground to help Alabama stuff a first-quarter carry.
"I had a little juice," Evans said, breaking into a smile. "Being out for two weeks, you get some push-ups in and some sit-ups, and you feel pretty good out there. That felt like, 'Welcome back.' I was just happy and glad to be out there."
Evans felt a little sore after the Nashville romp but was very optimistic, saying, "It's only going to get better over time. The more and more I play, the looser it is going to get."
Alabama is hosting Ole Miss on Saturday night, a program the Tide have not been able to contain the past three seasons. Since Alabama took a 14-3 halftime lead in the 2014 game in Oxford, the Rebels have hung 106 points in 10 quarters on the Tide, an average of 10.6 points per quarter.
A rested and wiser Evans is hoping last Saturday's performance will be more indicative of what to expect this week.
"We really just wanted to play with passion," he said. "We played like we love this game. We want to continue to do that."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.