Does Jake Coker Deserve to Be the Front-Runner for Alabama's Starting QB Spot?
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As Alabama transitions from the 2014 season to looking ahead to 2015, its impending quarterback competition will undoubtedly be on everyone’s mind.
And with that comes the desire to assign a front-runner for a job. Not necessarily to declare a winner before it’s even started, but people want to know: Who’s the guy to beat?
Last year, that was Jake Coker.
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The FSU transfer came in with a strong arm and high praise from anonymous scouts to his former head coach. Coker was going to make the seamless transition, master Lane Kiffin’s offense and lead Alabama to glory.
Of course, it didn’t happen that way.
Blake Sims won the job and started every game for Alabama, leading it to an SEC title and a playoff berth.
Coker wasn’t terrible, a complete bust to be written off forever. But he struggled to grasp the offense and run it smoothly during games, understandable given that he couldn’t get to campus until May, after he had graduated Florida State.
Now, Coker seems to be the man once again. He took every backup snap for Alabama in 2014 and will get a full offseason in the system. As a rising redshirt senior, it’s also his last chance to start for a college program.
Has he done enough to warrant that front-runner consideration? A closer look at his in-game action from 2014 shows that he still has a long way to go before being crowned a starter.
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Coker got his only shots to really win the job in Weeks 2 and 3 against Florida Atlantic and Southern Miss. In both games, he made decent throws and missed on others, but clock and game-management issues ultimately cut down whatever shot he had at overtaking Sims in a starting role.
Sims and Coker split reps in the first half of what would be a game-shortened event against Florida Atlantic. Sims went three drives, Coker went three drives.
Coker’s talents were on full display on a third-quarter completion to ArDarius Stewart. He sat in the pocket, stepped up under pressure and delivered a 40-yard strike to Stewart as he was being hit. The throw dropped in over the cornerback and Stewart came down with the ball in the red zone.
Coker’s critical error, though, came at the end of the first half.
He had driven Alabama to the 12, then scrambled to the 4-yard line with the seconds ticking down. On third down, he couldn’t find anyone open, but rather than throw the ball away, he scrambled around and took a sack, running out the half. Alabama had been in position for an easy field goal but couldn’t attempt one because of Coker’s play.
Against hapless Florida Atlantic, the play didn’t have any impact on the outcome. But those precious possessions and points are invaluable against SEC teams. Nick Saban was livid with Coker, and rightfully so.
The next week, against Southern Miss, Alabama had the ball on the two. Again, Coker ran around too long and took a sack, pushing the offense back to the 13. Adam Griffith delivered on the field goal, but that kind of lost field position in the red zone can’t happen against an SEC team.
Those aren’t physical issues. Coker showed the tools through those first two games. But those game-management skills are what irks Saban.
Coker appeared briefly against Florida, throwing a nice fade for a touchdown, while Sims was hurt and then took over late in a massive blowout of Texas A&M. Otherwise, he was on the sideline, watching as Sims maneuvered Alabama into SEC title contention.
It was curious, though, that it was quarterback Alec Morris, not Coker, who was helping Lane Kiffin signal in plays to the in-game quarterback. It’s unclear whether that’s because of Morris’ understandings of the nuances of the offense or experience on campus. But Coker wasn’t involved with the first-team offense at all from the sideline while it was on the field.
Coker’s next opportunity to really run the offense and get into a rhythm came in Alabama’s penultimate regular-season game against Western Carolina.
He got in the game to start the second half and looked a little calmer and more comfortable running the offense.
On his first drive, he led Alabama to the red zone (and didn’t take a field-position-killing sack). On his next, he went 7-of-7 (minus a deep ball called for pass interference), including a dump-off that Michael Nysewander took 11 yards for a score.
Coker wasn’t as frazzled as he seemed early in the season. He was more in control.
"It was tough coming in trying to get to know everybody and be on that same page," Coker said at the Sugar Bowl, per Duane Rankin of the Montgomery Advertiser. "Learn the playbook and everything, but I feel like I've gotten a lot better since I've gotten here."
That was the theme of Coker’s 2014. He showed off the physical tools that made him a highly touted transfer. But he still hasn’t proven that he can run an offense effectively through an entire game.
At this time last year, Sims hadn’t really either. Like Coker, there were flashes, but it was never proven until he led Alabama to a win over West Virginia to open the 2014 season.
So while Coker should have a decent chance at winning the job, it’s hard to declare him a front-runner just yet.
Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.
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