Odds on Who Will Be Alabama's Starting QB in 2015
The sequel to the Lane Kiffin Experience will feature a similar script to the original.
In his second straight season as the offensive coordinator of the Crimson Tide, Kiffin is charged with finding a reliable quarterback option who's capable of moving his offense at a high level.
Who will that be?
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Senior Jake Coker, junior Alec Morris, sophomore Cooper Bateman, redshirt freshman David Cornwell and true freshman Blake Barnett are all vying for the top spot on the depth chart this spring. Exiting spring practice, it seemed like Cornwell had emerged as the primary contender to Coker, who played with the first team in the spring game.
Let's get you ready for Alabama's fall-camp quarterback battle with an odds board:
| Jake Coker | Senior (RS) | 5-1 |
| David Cornwell | Freshman (RS) | 6-1 |
| Cooper Bateman | Sophomore (RS) | 12-1 |
| Alec Morris | Junior (RS) | 20-1 |
| Blake Barnett | Freshman | 25-1 |
Coker has to be the favorite at this point in the summer. He exited spring with the lead, and many of the nine new faces who will start on the 2015 Crimson Tide are players Coker worked with last year while running with the second-team offense.
The senior former Florida State backup has a big arm and is comfortable with Kiffin's offense and the players he's playing with.
But can he really be the guy?
Coker landed in Tuscaloosa last summer with a ton of hype but couldn't beat out Blake Sims—who once played running back during his Alabama career—last year. A full year in the system will help Coker in 2015, but it's also reasonable to question whether his upside is as high as Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher made it out to be when he was in Tallahassee.
Cornwell has pulled into nearly a dead heat, and if you're looking for value, he's probably your best pick.
The former 4-star prospect from Norman, Oklahoma, enrolled at Alabama in January 2014 fresh off an ACL tear suffered during his senior season in high school. He didn't get much work last spring and then had ankle surgery after spring practice that prevented him from playing at full strength on the scout team until midway through last season.
This spring was the first time the staff had a chance to watch the real Cornwell, and he moved all the way up to a clear No. 2 midway through spring practice. That's pretty impressive for the 6'5", 221-pounder with the big arm and underrated wheels. As I wrote in our bold quarterback predictions piece from earlier this month, picking Cornwell to spring the upset wouldn't be the most outlandish pick in the world after this spring's charge.
As Chris Low of ESPN.com noted in May, Cornwell has all the momentum heading into summer workouts:
Bateman and Morris aren't out of it but have to be considered long shots at this point.
Bateman was a 4-star prospect in the class of 2013, and Morris was a 3-star player in 2012, but save for special teams work and some mop-up duty handing off late in blowouts, neither has earned significant backup snaps at the Capstone. Bateman probably has more upside of the two, but the fact that Cornwell jumped them this spring doesn't bode well for the future.
I loved Barnett coming out of high school in Corona, California, in the class of 2015. The 4-star pro-style quarterback was reclassified midway through his senior season, when he was listed as a dual-threat. That gives you a good idea of his athleticism.
He can stretch the field vertically, has the arm strength to make the tough passes across the field and has the athleticism to mix in some designed runs just like Sims did a year ago.
But do Kiffin and head coach Nick Saban really want to put the season in the hands of a true freshman with so much other roster turnover on the offensive side of the ball?
If Alabama returned four or five offensive lineman and an established wide receiver, maybe they'd pull that trigger. With nine new starters including the quarterback, though, the circumstances just don't play into Barnett's favor in 2015.
It seems like it's going to be Coker vs. Cornwell this summer in Tuscaloosa.
If no clear winner emerges by kickoff at AT&T Stadium vs. Wisconsin, it will be fascinating to see which way the staff goes.
Coker has the experience, which should help him in game situations. But if it's close, going with the quarterback of the future and letting him learn on the job is an attractive option as well.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of CFBStats.com unless otherwise noted, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports' composite rankings.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
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