Alabama Quarterback Battle Looks Far from over After Spring Game
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — If there’s anything we learned last year, it’s not to judge a quarterback by his A-Day performance.
Blake Sims went 13-of-30 with 178 yards, two interceptions and a touchdown in last year’s spring game, and he only went on to lead a record-setting offense and break several Alabama quarterback marks along the way.
Still, the temptation remains, and so fans, coaches and media alike studied all five of Alabama’s quarterbacks closely on Saturday.
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The only thing to really glean from Alabama’s quarterback performances was that this thing still has a long way to go before anything can be decided.
Because of the A-Day format, it wasn’t exactly a level playing field. And while all five guys had their share of ups and downs, a couple of hours in front of a half-full stadium running only a small portion of the offense isn’t going to determine who Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin trot out under center against Wisconsin.
| Jake Coker | 14-28 | 183 | 1 | 1 |
| Alec Morris | 7-11 | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| Cooper Bateman | 7-11 | 48 | 0 | 1 |
| David Cornwell | 12-24 | 110 | 1 | 2 |
| Blake Barnett | 6-9 | 25 | 1 | 2 |
The spring game usually works against the offense.
Both offense and defense are limited in what they can do, but even still that gives the defense the advantage, since they are the ones doing the reacting.
This year, Saban put senior Jake Coker and junior Alec Morris on the White team with the first-team offense. Sophomore Cooper Bateman, redshirt freshman David Cornwell and true freshman Blake Barnett were grouped with Crimson, which featured the first defense and the second offense.
It’s no secret that Alabama’s depth on defense is much better than that on offense. When the ones went against each other Saturday, it was a pretty even affair. But among the twos, the defense easily had the upper hand, from the line all the way back into the secondary.
That benefited Coker and Morris, while sort of handcuffing the other three.
“I thought the two quarterbacks that played with (the White) team had a much better opportunity," Saban said. "You're going to look at this and say, 'Well, these two guys played better.' Well, if I had to play on those two teams, I would have played better on the White team.
“...We lost a lot of players on offense. We don't have a lot of depth on offense right now, so it really affects the second unit a lot more than it does the first, especially when you have a few guys that are injured. Those guys had a better opportunity to have success, and they took advantage of it and did a good job.”
Coker in particular probably had the highest highs of any of the five passers. He made several pinpoint throws with confidence over the top and down the middle—the type of throws you want to see from your starting quarterback.
His first half stat line was almost perfect: 10-of-16 for 147 yards and a touchdown.
But in the second half, he had an ugly interception that was returned for a touchdown. Cecil Hurt of The Tuscaloosa News noted the huge inconsistency in his start to the second half:
"Coker was 4-for-12 for 36 yards in the 3rd quarter.
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) April 18, 2015"
The consistency is something that Coker struggled with a lot last year. He showed his flashes, and then he'd have a string of bad plays. When Coker is on, he can be one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but that consistency, or lack thereof, is keeping him from running away with the job.
Behind him, Morris was shaky at best, displaying the strong arm that wide receivers talk about seeing in practice but not much from a command standpoint.
On the other side, Cornwell got the second-most pass attempts of the five. Cornwell showed flashes, but his two interceptions were eyesores.
Bateman threw one pass into quadruple coverage that was promptly picked by Jabriel Washington. Barnett very much had about the day you'd expect a true freshman to have but finished on a high note, hitting ArDarius Stewart on a corner route for a touchdown in the game's waning moments.
So how does a coach judge an A-Day performance?
“You kind of take the plays that the quarterback couldn’t make, because he didn’t have a chance to make, and you really can’t fault him for that," Saban said. "You take the opportunities that maybe they had where they had protection, they had time, they had open people—did they throw the ball to the right place? Were they able to throw it accurately? Did they make good decisions? I think you have to sort of separate the things that they can control and the things that they can’t control and sort of evaluate it that way.”
Overall—looking at the stats and the situational play—you could probably say Coker had the best day. But he still looked far from ready to take over as Alabama’s starting quarterback right now.
There were struggles across the board, and some of that is just by design. But it also shows that there is no one person right now who is ready to take over as starting quarterback.
That question will take more time to answer.
Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes and reporting were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.
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