TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- What Alabama will do at Will linebacker this weekend is still undecided.

For the third game in a row, freshman Christian Harris started at the weak-side linebacker spot against South Carolina, but he did not finish the game there. Early in the second half, head coach Nick Saban replaced Harris with sophomore Ale Kaho, who played the rest of the game.

“There was a lot of confusion with the young guys, with the formations and the motions and some of the things that they were doing,” Saban said. “We tried to get (Harris) settled down by taking him out of the game and put Kaho in for a series. And then we put him back in the game, and then we decided to play Kaho a little bit because he’s a good football player and he needs to get some experience, himself.”

Harris and Kaho finished the road game with four tackles apiece, but both players struggled.

Saban went with Kaho over Harris, but the former missed a tackle on Gamecocks running back Rico Dowdle that ended up being a 12-yard pickup in the third quarter. Playing with the twos in the fourth quarter, Kaho was also in coverage on Carolina’s final touchdown -- an 11-yard pass.

Overall, the entire Crimson Tide defense gave up 479 yards and 23 points in its first game of SEC play. With tougher tests coming later in the schedule, improvement is needed at all levels.

“There was a lot of adjusting to do,” Saban said. “The young players had a lot of problems adjusting to the quads and to the empty formation in the boundary, which we had worked on, but it was a lot for the linebackers. So, we had to stay pretty simple in terms of what we were doing, afraid that we would not do things correctly.”

The head coach added Monday, “Defensively, we played well at times, but we made some mental errors that allowed them to keep possession of the ball, which is not a good thing. But made some big red-area stops that kept them off the board, got a couple of turnovers. I think there’s a lot of things that we can improve on.”

Alabama’s defense took another big hit with junior defensive end LaBryan Ray set to miss an “undetermined” amount of time with a foot injury. The latest setback could have the Crimson Tide starting four true freshmen in its defensive front seven Saturday against Southern Miss.

But whether or not Harris returns to the lineup or Kaho replaces him remains to be seen.

“There’s no plan right now,” Saban said Monday. “We’ll see how guys work out in practice, and if they do well, we’ll play the guy that we think that can do the best job in the game.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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