TUSCALOOSA -- Most of what's going to heal has healed.

The gashes in his head are gone. The concussion is history. The broken bone in his right wrist is mended. The large cut on his right ankle now is just a little scratch that might leave a big scar.

But that will be nothing compared to the nasty scar on Carson Tinker's emotions.

How does one heal from the unspeakable tragedy of a killer tornado that ravaged Tuscaloosa on April 27?

From a closet inside the house he shared with two others, Alabama's junior deep snapper was blown 100 yards into an empty field across the street. As the house crumbled, his girlfriend, Ashley Harrison, was ripped from his firm grasp. Her body was found in the same field the next morning.

"When those kind of things happen, they don't just go away," Alabama coach Nick Saban said. "You have to learn how to deal with them, and he's done a pretty good job of that."

Football has been Tinker's therapy.

"Oh, yeah, football," he said, breaking into a grin in the Alabama media room, where he agreed to appear if he wasn't asked to rehash his painful day. "The people I've known from football, we're just a family up here. You really can't explain the relief that I get from this."

Somebody recently asked the returning starter from Murfreesboro, Tenn., how the coaches have been treating him.

"I said, 'The same exact way. Nothing is different coming out here. They're not feeling sorry for me,'" he said. "That's the most therapeutic thing. I mean, I haven't been doing bad, but they always demand your very best. And it is comforting to know you're out there getting yelled at. I guess that sounds weird."

Can any Alabama player possibly be looking more forward to the season opener a week from today against Kent State?

"I was telling somebody earlier ... they asked what Sept. 3 meant to me," Tinker said. "I said, 'I've been looking forward to that day for a very long time.' Not just the day. The season.

"When I was doing my rehab and doing all the things that I needed to get healthy ... what I thought about was running out of that tunnel and playing football."

He had to walk before he could run.

"I remember I came back, and I couldn't run yet, but everybody else was out there running," Tinker said of summer conditioning sessions. "I was just out there with them. ... It was very encouraging and inspiring to me to see them out there working hard and getting ready for the season.

"I knew that I had to be out there, and I wanted to be out there. I started running again around the first of July."

Saban is impressed with Tinker's perseverance.

"If you're around Carson, he's such a positive and upbeat guy," Saban said. "You really don't know that anything happened. He's probably handled this as well as anybody could."

Spring graduation was postponed until early August. Harrison would have received her diploma that day, and her family from Texas made the trip.

"I think this graduation was something that brought some thoughts back for him that were hard for him to deal with," Saban said. "He's going to have to continue to sort of persevere. That's a tough thing."

Three wooden crosses now stand in the field where Tinker used to hit golf balls across 25th Street from the house that now is just a lot with little debris remaining. One cross memorializes Harrison. A folding metal chair, painted red, faces the cross, on and around which people have left items in her honor.

The other simple crosses stand nearby, where Tinker's and Harrison's dogs are buried. A short golf club leans against one cross. Leashes are wrapped around the other one. On top of the grave are 20 golf balls and several dog-food dishes.

It is a stirring scene to remember from a day to forget.

Teammates, coaches and others have helped Tinker cope. Fans have sent letters and e-mails.

"Dr. (Kevin) Elko, who comes to talk to us, says, 'Some people pray for blessings, but I pray that I can be a blessing for somebody,'" Tinker said. "I want to go out and I want to reach everybody that I can and try to inspire them, because I mean there's a lot of people that have been through very similar things that I've been through, and if I can help them, I'm all for it."