Nick Saban took center stage at SEC Media Days on Wednesday morning and clarified what he’s looking for from his group of quarterbacks before naming a starter in the fall.
For the second year in a row, Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban had to answer questions about the open quarterback competition. Last year, Saban and Alabama were in the first year without AJ McCarron who won two national titles as the starting quarterback but the Tide did well with Blake Sims last year.
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Sims was a revelation in his fifth year at Alabama and was one of the higher rated passers in the country and flourished with Biletnikoff Award winner Amari Cooper, but now that he’s gone the Tide don’t have the luxury of turning to a player who has been in the system for four years.
The chief competitors are former Florida State transfer Jake Coker who backed up Sims last year and redshirt freshman David Cornwell.
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Coker was the presumed starter last year but couldn’t unseat Sims and has yet to separate himself from Cornwell and that’s something Saban is looking for as the competition amps back up in earnest in the fall.
“I know you’re anxious to ask me about the quarterback situation but that’s going to be one of the keys to the drill in terms of somebody taking the bull by the horns at that position, being assertive, playing with confidence, distributing the ball and executing in a positive way, being a good decision maker and showing leadership at the same time,” Saban said, via CBS Sports.
Being assertive and playing with confidence is something that could be difficult for both Cornwell and Coker considering Cornwell has never played a game for Alabama and Coker hasn’t proven to his teammates he can lead this team to wins after he parachuted into Tuscaloosa last summer.
The assumption once again is Coker will get the nod over Cornwell, Alec Morris, Cooper Bateman and true freshman Blake Barnett, but if he doesn’t assert himself as the leader of the offense and the team, this could spell trouble for Alabama’s SEC title defense.
“We don’t have an experienced player at that position. We did not have one last year. Blake Sims did a fantastic job. We need someone to take the bull by the horns for us this year and be that kind of player for that type of position,” Saban continued.
“I think we have several guys that are capable of it; I don’t think anybody has come to the forefront as of yet, and I don’t think it’s something we can force to happen. I think we got to let it happen, and I cannot give you a timetable of when that’s going to happen.”
I would expect the timetable is something like Saban names the starter a couple of days before their season opener against Wisconsin and we see both Coker and Cornwell get reps into Week 2 against Middle Tennessee State before hosting Ole Miss the next week.
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