Alabama Football: Next 10 Days of Fall Camp Should Determine Tide's Starting QB

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nick Saban says the time has come for the University of Alabama football coaching staff to make some decisions about the quarterback position. 

But that doesn’t mean the Crimson Tide are close to naming a starter. Rather they’re laying the groundwork for how the next stage of the competition will proceed.

“We have given all the quarterbacks some chance,” Saban said during his post-practice press conference on Wednesday evening. “We’re going to have to make some evaluations before the scrimmage so that they get a number of reps that we can evaluate how they do out there when the live bullets fly.”

While that doesn’t necessarily mean the coaches are going to start dismissing the contenders one at a time like a bad weekly reality TV show, it indicated that they’re about to start honing in on the primary contenders.

Specifically, Alabama has five quarterbacks on the roster, and all of them got reps during the spring and first week of training camp.

After appearing in seven games last season in relief of Blake Sims, Jake Coker is the closest thing to an incumbent as no other quarterback has attempted a pass at the collegiate level.

Coker completed 38 of 59 attempts for 403 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions in 2014. His completion percentage of 64.4 was nearly the exact same as Sims’ (64.5), but Sims was more of a dual threat who ended up with 350 rushing yards.

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Coker is also the lone senior in the competition. After transferring from Florida State, he has now had more than a year to absorb the offense.

So have the players who are right behind him: redshirt freshman David Cornwell, junior Alec Morris and sophomore Cooper Bateman. The only player who has not is true freshman Blake Barnett, who might have the most potential.

“It does make things difficult,” said offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin about the five-man competition, “but another way to look at [it] is if you eliminate one or two, you might be eliminating the wrong guy. We sat up here one year ago, and we didn’t know who our quarterback was going to be at that time. So you have to let it play out and let them decide.”

While fans have been clamoring for any news about who might have the upper hand, Saban has predictably kept things close to the vest and been almost cryptic about things.

However, the most important evaluations haven’t taken place yet. They will likely occur during the Crimson Tide’s two closed scrimmages, which will be held during the next two Saturdays at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

If last year’s competition between Sims and Coker can serve as an accurate blueprint, here’s what to expect over the next 10 days:

• Alabama will hold a two-a-day on Thursday and a practice on Friday to prepare for the first scrimmage. That’s when the quarterbacks will likely find out how much they’ll be playing on Saturday.
• Beginning with Coker, all five quarterbacks will play in the scrimmage and also take some reps with the second-team offense. Chances are the school will not release any passing statistics or indicate who might have made turnovers.
• While the Crimson Tide won’t practice Sunday, the coaching staff will go through the game film and make any necessary changes to the position hierarchy. The quarterbacks will have one final week to help their causes.
• Alabama will have a final two-a-day on Monday, Aug. 17, two days before classes begin for the fall semester.

Even after the second scrimmage, don’t expect Saban to necessarily name a starter. Although that’s when Sims separated himself and essentially won the job last year, the coaches’ post-scrimmage comment was: “Until somebody clearly wins the job, we’re not going to make a decision. Both guys had their moments of doing good things, but I also saw inconsistencies with those guys.”

The day after the second scrimmage, the coaches will meet and decide which players will contribute this season at every position and which ones won’t. It’s also when the preliminary decisions are made about who will likely redshirt.

“I think what we’re really trying to do is evaluate a lot of the younger players so that we can determine whether we think they can make the progress to make a contribution to this team,” Saban said.

“Now, we’re obviously going to evaluate where we are on offense, defense, what we think we need to do to change, what we can and can’t do so that we’re doing things that our players are capable of doing. And it’s going to be really important that we find a core group of guys that will go out there on special teams so that that can be a real asset for us.”

So how will Crimson Tide fans know who will start at quarterback against Wisconsin on Sept. 5 (8 p.m. ET, ABC)? It’ll be the player leading the quarterbacks through drills during the first practice held after the scrimmages and atop the official depth chart released the Monday before the season opener.

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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