Alabama Crimson Tide head football coach Nick Saban is not ready to name Jacob Coker the starting quarterback and would rather have the Florida State transfer win the job.
According to ESPN, Saban referred to Blake Sims, the senior QB who has been playing behind AJ McCarron for the past few years. When Coker was at Florida State, he lost the starting QB competition and spent the 2013 season as Jameis Winston's backup.
After Winston won the Heisman Trophy and led the Florida State Seminoles to a BCS National Championship victory, Coker decided it was time to transfer. He graduated from Florida State last spring and has two years of NCAA eligibility left at Alabama.
"That's really not internally the perception by me, our staff or our players," Saban told ESPN of the public perception that Coker is favored to start on opening day. "Jake Coker has the opportunity to come in and compete for the position.
"Blake Sims has been competing for the position. He really did a pretty good job in the spring. He didn't play great in the spring game, but we really didn't do the things that he's capable of doing."
Due to his transfer waiver, Coker was not able to participate in Alabama's spring practice, but he has been with the team since. What Coker does have going for him is a prototypical six-foot-five, 210-pound frame for a pro-style quarterback. Some evaluators say he needs work with his mechanics, but his physical tools give him a high ceiling.
"There's going to be a competition there, as well as some of the younger players will be involved in that competition," Saban said. "We really can't make that decision or prediction as to what's going to happen at that position, but the development of that position, regardless of who the player is, is going to be critical to the success of our team."
Sims did struggle in the spring game, throwing two interceptions, but he did have to go up against the Crimson Tide defense. Even if Coker did have an upper hand, Saban wants him to feel the need to earn his position.
"There's a process that any player has to go through in any system to be able to play effectively," Saban said. "No matter how much you want to speed up the process, you still have to do it and it takes time.
"But an older player who has more knowledge and experience can relate and probably do it more quickly than a younger player because he's been through a college system, and one [at FSU] that's not so dissimilar to ours because we still do a lot of the same things."
