Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jake Coker will miss several days with a foot injury and he may also miss his chance to secure the starting quarterback job.
Jake Coker hasn’t been able to separate himself in the tight quarterback competition with redshirt freshman David Cornwell and true freshman Blake Barnett and his chances of starting the regular season opener on Sept 5. vs Wisconsin took a hit with a foot injury.
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Coker will be sidelined for several days with the foot injury but head coach Nick Saban called it a minor injury and he’s expected to make a full recovery.
He was the default choice to be the Tide’s starting quarterback with his top competitors being freshmen and he’s a fifth-year senior who served as Blake Sims’ backup last year, but the injury opens the door to Cornwell and Barnett to make a run for the job and Saban is eagerly anticipating that.
"“Somebody’s gotta make it happen. I can’t make it happen,” Saban said after Saturday’s scrimmage, via Sporting News. “As bad as I’d like to make it happen, I can’t make it happen… If it doesn’t get decided, like it didn’t when AJ (McCarron) and Phillip Sims were here, they both played a quarter, a quarter, a quarter, a quarter in the first game, and that’s how we figured it out.So, do I want it to happen that way? No. But I can’t make this happen, as bad as everybody wants it to happen, and they want to create this great hope. ‘Coach said this guy is the man.’ I can’t make it happen.”"
This is not how Saban would have preferred the decision be made but if Coker can’t win the job in training camp, he’s not going to have the job handed to him.
Can Alabama win a national championship with a redshirt or true freshman under center? Jameis Winston led Florida State to the national title two years ago as a redshirt freshman and won the Heisman and the year before that Johnny Manziel won the Heisman and beat Alabama as a redshirt freshman.
So the injury could prove to be a blessing in disguise for Alabama as they’ll be able to start the youth movement with either Cornwell or Barnett with Coker serving as the backup once again.
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