The Evolution of Alabama QB Jake Coker

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — His name is Nick Harvey. He’s considered a rising talent with a lot of potential for Texas A&M, but Alabama fans know him for something much different.

He’s the guy Jake Coker dropped his shoulder on and ran over while running along the Kyle Field sideline on Oct. 17.

It turned out to be an important moment for both him and the team, as it was when the Crimson Tide really started to rally around the quarterback.

“We love it,” Crimson Tide senior linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “Anytime he takes off like that and takes the hits and gets back up, we call him Baby Roethlisberger. Anytime he does that, that gets guys on the team hyped up. We’ll be backed up 3rd-and-10 and he gets the first down, the guys on the sideline see that and get hyped up more and more. The guys in the locker room love it.”

In terms of Coker’s progress, the evolution of a quarterback has played out over the course of the season as he essentially took baby steps against Wisconsin and started to do the equivalent of walking against Ole Miss. He’s since started taking strides, and Alabama needs him to run in November when the division title will be determined.

That’s an oversimplification, of course, but the steps in his development are obvious.

Step 1, Ole Miss

Coker didn’t start and wasn’t inserted until the Rebels had scored with six minutes, 43 seconds remaining in the first half to take a 17-3 lead. It ended up being a five-turnover day for the Crimson Tide, including two interceptions by the senior quarterback, but Nick Saban finally saw what he had been looking for.

The coach had said all along that he wanted one of the five quarterbacks to essentially win over the team, just like Blake Sims did last year and the others before him. There was finally no doubt that Coker was in command of the offense.

“I guess it started against Ole Miss,” Coker said. “We started getting better and better. But we’ve been getting better and better the whole time.

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“We still have a long way to go.”

Step 2, Texas A&M

The dropping of the shoulder meant more than most fans realize.

“I love that about him,” SEC Network analyst Tim Tebow said. “He’s been trying to win [his teammates] over, to get them to believe in him, and I think that’s really important.

“Although you’re supposed to respect the quarterback position as a leader, guys don’t. They respect heart and they respect passion, they respect determination way more than they’ll respect a position. I think when he shows plays like that he wins over guys on his team and that makes Alabama a way-better football team.”

Tebow’s point—and he obviously experienced it at Florida—was that there has to be a moment in which the players sort of collectively think, “OK, we’re going to rally around this guy.” It changes the makeup of a football team.

Granted, Harvey wasn’t the only defender on whom Coker has dropped his shoulder, and he’s taken on some linebackers as well, but it came at a point when the Crimson Tide needed something to rally around.

“Now I wouldn’t advise leading with your throwing shoulder against 250-pound guys, it’s a little scary to me, makes me a little hesitant,” former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy said. “But I did see the response on the sideline by his teammates, and that can’t go unnoticed.

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“I think he’s done a really nice job the past few weeks. He’s really comfortable and he’s gained a lot of confidence, which is imperative at his position. His talent is starting to come to the forefront a little bit more because he’s not thinking so much. He’s only going to continue to get better.”

Even Saban likes it when Coker takes on a defender despite the obvious injury risk. Besides, the quarterback doesn’t like sliding.

“It's the personality of the player,” Saban said. “Jake's a tough, competitive guy. He's a big, physical guy. He's getting better and better every week. I don't want to take his aggressiveness away because we're fearful something bad is going to happen. I just don't coach that way.”

Step 3, Tennessee

When a tired Crimson Tide struggled offensively, the game came down to one possession. 

Especially when Tennessee took a 14-13 lead, Alabama’s chance to answer began at its own 29 with 5:49 remaining. He completed big passes to wide receivers ArDarius Stewart and Calvin Ridley as it went eight plays, 71 yards to win the game.

“I felt real good going into that drive, I felt that everyone was real focused on what we needed to do,” Coker said. “Everyone around me made plays and made it really easy on me.”

Opponet	C-A-I	Pct.	Yards	TDs	Rating
Wiconsin	15-21-0	71.4	213	1	172.34
Middle Tenn.	15-26-1	57.7	214	1	131.83
Ole Miss	21-45-2	46.7	201	3	97.30
ULM	17-31-1	54.8	158	3	123.14
Georgia	11-16-0	68.8	190	1	189.12
Arkansas	24-33-2	72.7	262	2	147.30
Texas A&M	19-25-0	76.0	138	0	122.37
Tennessee	21-27-1	77.8	247	0	147.21
Totals	143-224-7	63.8	162	1	134.66

It hasn’t been without problems, and the offense has gone through some major growing pains in addition to injuries. The eight tackles for a loss allowed per game ranks 120th in the nation out of 127 teams. The 33.6 third-down percentage is 111th, while the 14 turnovers lost are 81st.

But Coker’s play has been improving even though Alabama’s schedule has been nothing short of brutal. 

“We're not totally satisfied with the consistency in the passing game in terms of the whole ball of wax, in terms of protection; too much pressure on the quarterback, too many sacks, timing in the passing game,” Saban said, “We were better on third down in this last game but that's been a bone of contention for us.

“More consistency in the red zone, scoring touchdowns, all those things …”

One of the things Alabama does during a bye week is what it calls quality control, during which it doesn’t necessarily study an opponent—although it was obviously putting in a lot of work on the next opponent as well—but focuses primarily on itself. It goes back to fundamentals for the workouts and concentrates on areas it wants to improve.

Coker said on Monday that the team was coming off a good week of practice, but having No. 4 LSU next up on the schedule made it really easy to focus.

“Just real excited about it,” Coker said. “Real big game, just trying to get prepared and go have some fun.”

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.