Is this the image of a man who worries about things?

Saban Not Worried About Quarterback Position, You Shouldn’t be Either

By: Larry Burton

In his first stop on the “Crimson Caravan” tour that Saban makes every spring, this one in Huntsville, Alabama, when asked about how he felt about the quarterback position after the A Day Game said, “No different than what it was before. I think everybody had their moments where they did some very, very good things in the game. I think that there were also some things that each one of them wished they probably wouldn’t have done rather than some of the turnovers that we had that were poor decisions and misreads.

“Those are the kind of things that we need to improve on and certainly grow from and learn from. I think everybody knows reality is really kind of – it’s a friendly thing because it doesn’t lie. It tells you exactly where you are, exactly what you need to work on so then you have to make a commitment to what do I want to become and what am I willing to sacrifice to become that.

And that also means what are you willing to give up so you can become what you want to become. I think our whole team needs to ask that question so that we can be the kind of team that we can be a year from now.”

In other words, they did some good things to show they can do well and some bad things that mean there’s still work to do on the mental side.

What he might have been thinking but would never publicly say is, “Hey, I got this. Did you see what strides Lane Kiffin made with Blake Sims last year? Well all these guys have a higher ceiling than Blake did when it comes to throwing the ball, so don’t worry about the quarterback position. We got this.”

With all due respect to Blake Sims, who did manage to break some throwing records, the great majority of his passes never traveled more than five yards from the line of scrimmage. This was not due to his inability to throw the deep ball, in fact he did complete several of those. But in Sims, Kiffin may have never better job of coaching a quarterback to play within his strengths and not risk too many plays that were on the fringe of his comfort zone.

A quick synopsis of each quarterback is:

Jacob Coker – good arm strength, slow delivery, rattles easy when first option is covered

David Cornwell – Gunslinger arm, quick release, still doesn’t see the whole field in the heat

Alec Morris – The cerebral one. Sees everything, not quick footed, average to strong arm for quarterback

Blake Barnett – Gunslinger arm, quick footed, confident to the point of almost cocky, will risk a tight throw based on his arm strength and confidence, adjusting to the speed of the SEC

Cooper Bateman – Decent arm strength, lacks confidence, doesn’t adjust well in trouble, seems to be lost in the shuffle for now

While that may not be an assessment you either agree with or believe, for Saban to have a coach like Lane Kiffin on board, these aren’t troubling problems, they are all pretty much fixable. It’s not like any have throwing motion abnormalities, have a club foot or are five foot eight with one eye. These were all quarterback who led teams to winning records in high school and were highly recruited quarterbacks.

You give material like that to a coach like Lane Kiffin and by mid season your lack of confidence in the quarterback situation at Alabama will all be forgotten.

Don’t worry fan, Saban’s got this.

Larry has been published in almost every media outlet for college sports and now primarily writes here for Touchdown Alabama. Follow Larry on Twitter for inside thoughts and game time comments at https://twitter.com/LBSportswriter

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