The jawbreaker hit Alabama football's Kevin Riley didn't see coming
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PASADENA, Calif. — “The fourth quarter, too, man. The fourth quarter.”
Kevin Riley is still incredulous. About the opponent, Eastern Illinois, yes, but also about the fourth-quarter timing of the hit that ended the Alabama football running back’s regular season. The Crimson Tide was thrashing EIU, a hapless FCS team, by a score of 42-0 when a vicious hit broke Riley’s jaw. He admits now that he didn’t think Eastern Illinois’ defense had enough vigor to do such a thing, especially near the end of a game that ended up 56-0.
The fourth quarter, however, wasn’t yet quitting time for EIU, and Riley paid the price for it.
Rumors that he didn’t have his mouthpiece in, Riley insists, were false. But he acknowledged where they came from: the impact of the hit caused his mouthpiece to fly out of his mouth. He described the pain as a 10 on a 1-10 scale, and weaned himself off prescription pain medication because he was concerned about taking too much of it. The injury caused him to miss three highly important games, against Auburn, Georgia and Oklahoma. And worst of all, the hit put him on a soft-food diet for more than a month. Riley said he sustained largely on soups and mashed potatoes.
“The impact, I think it split my chin area,” Riley said. “There wasn’t much I could really do except wait for it to heal up. There wasn’t any way to come back any faster. I’ll give it to him. It was a pretty good hit.”
Nothing good came of it for Riley, however.
The former Tuscaloosa County High star could only watch as his teammates clinched a CFP berth, lost the SEC title game, and, finally — by beating Oklahoma in a first-round game — breathed life into Riley’s chances of playing again this season.
Now, he’s been cleared by the UA training staff and is ready to return against Indiana in the CFP Rose Bowl quarterfinal (Thursday, 3 p.m. CT, ESPN). He’ll be looking to add something to an Alabama rushing attack that has struggled all year.
And this time, he can expect the fourth-quarter hits to be big ones.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: The jawbreaker hit Alabama football RB Kevin Riley didn’t see coming
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