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Alabama QB Jake Coker victim of media’s hype machine

By Patrick Schmidt

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For the second straight year Jacob Coker was the assumed starting quarterback for Alabama, but you know what they say when you assume something.

Last spring Jacob Coker was graduating from Florida State where he backed up Jameis Winston, E.J. Manuel and Christian Ponder in his first three years at Tallahassee and was the anointed successor to AJ McCarron at Alabama, but a funny thing happened along the way.

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I asked Alabama fans who would be the starting quarterback for Alabama following their humbling loss to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl and the majority of the responses were Coker who had yet to even transfer to Alabama at the time, but the conviction was so high in his ability.

ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. said he was a first round talent with an arm that could make all the throws and the athleticism to beat teams with his feet.

College football writers thought it was a done deal when the transfer was official after Coker graduated and made him eligible to play in 2014. Bloggers took the bait — yours truly included — and the hype train got rolling.

Coker was not only going to be the starter at Alabama where Blake Sims didn’t stand a chance to beat the strong-armed transfer who nearly beat out the Heisman winner at Florida State and things got crazy.

Talk about being a Heisman contender got underway before even taking a snap, he would lead Alabama to the national title just like his predecessor McCarron, but when Coker set foot on the practice field, it turns out what Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin and the rest of the coaching staff saw was the hype wasn’t real.

Sims, the player no one gave a legit chance to start, started every game for Alabama as a fifth-year senior and led the SEC in passing touchdowns with 28 and quarterback rating with a 157.87, the seventh-highest mark in the nation. Alabama won the SEC and advanced to the College Football Playoff in large part because of the right arm of Sims.

Meanwhile, now Jake Coker, completed 28-of-59 passes for 403 yards and four touchdowns in mostly garbage-time in relief of Sims.

With Sims out of eligibility, Coker was the quarterback with the most experience and the clear front-runner to start in his second year in Tuscaloosa, right?

Not so fast my friend.

ESPN’s SEC blogger, Chris Low thinks former four-star recruit David Cornwell wins the job and keeps Coker firmly attached to the Crimson Tide’s bench.

Cornwell is a strong-armed rising redshirt sophomore who was the nation’s No. 4 pro-style quarterback in the 2014 class, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

When Saban was asked about his starting quarterback at Tuesday’s SEC West coaches conference call he didn’t give Coker an endorsement and he’s not ready to name a starter.

"“As soon as we get to where we can zero in on the first, second and third-team guy, the happier we’ll be,” Saban said on Tuesday’s SEC West coaches conference call. “But that’s not something we can force. We’re gonna let it happen, not make it happen.”"

You have to feel a bit for Coker on a human level if he doesn’t win the starting job. He transferred to Alabama to get a fresh start and a chance to start with Winston, who was just the No. 1 pick of the 2015 NFL Draft, blocking him at Florida State.

Coker thought playing in a pro-style offense at Alabama would prepare him for a chance at the NFL, but now it’s a distinct possibility that Cornwell’s a better fit to lead Kiffin’s offense and brings more upside and big-play ability to an offense that’s replacing Amari Cooper.

The next big thing is something every fan base is desperately searching for and sometimes it clouds our better judgment when we think we’ve found it. That’s what happened with Coker. The assumption was he would start for two years at Alabama, lead them to a pair of SEC titles and maybe a national title before leaving for the NFL as a first round pick.

It was the fairy tale ending we created for ourselves as the hype train gained more steam.

Maybe he can do what Sims did last year and have one great year and lead Alabama to the SEC Championship Game and to the College Football Playoff again or even win the title.Sims garnered as much confidence last year at this time as Coker and he surprised the entire country.

See, there I go buying into the Coker hype again when it’s time to focus on whether Cornwell can be the “Next Jacob Coker” and try to live up his own hype and unrealistically high expectations.

Next: College Football's Most Overrated Players of All-Time

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