Another day, another story. Fall camps have started and the season crawls closer, but today the attention has been shifted from Tuscaloosa. In fact, it has been shifted from the Southeastern Conference, entirely.
An ESPN article released today put the attention of the Crimson Tide fan base on the PAC-12 – Utah and Arizona State, specifically. Two-thirds of last season’s quarterback battle – Blake Barnett and Cooper Bateman – spoke with ESPN about the way the competition was treated by their former head coach, Nick Saban.
Utah native, Cooper Bateman, made it clear he was not aware that Jalen Hurts would get as many reps as he did in the Tide’s week one match up with USC. He had strong words for the way it was handled.
“There was a lack of communication,” he said. “I knew after that first game that I didn’t really want to be part of it anymore.”
Bateman, who saw late game mop-up duties against the Trojans, served as Jake Coker’s backup in 2015. The quarterback that actually started the game, Blake Barnett, was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and took a redshirt during that 2015 championship season. Barnett was even more so blindsided by the decision to give Hurts the majority of the playing time.
“According to [Saban], I was the guy. Once Jalen went in, I was expecting it. But then he went out on the next series, the next series, and the next series. I don’t know if everything was communicated correctly.”
Both quarterbacks highlighted a communication error as the key flaw in Saban’s handling of the competition. According to Kyle Bonagura’s article, both considered transferring immediately after the game, but decided against it. Later in the season, however, Barnett’s father found a loophole in the NCAA’s transfer policy allowing for student-athletes to play exactly one year from the moment they drop their classes. After winning an appeal, Barnett will now be able to play immediately.
Upon announcing his decision to transfer schools last year, Barnett was publicly chewed out by Saban on his Thursday night radio show. Nick Saban was asked about it, and responded by discussing how the culture had changed and that had he quit a team, his father would have kicked him out of the house. While Barnett was not surprised at the reaction from the staff and fan base, he was shocked that Saban made his opinion so public.
“The only thing I took offense to,” Barnett started, “is that Saban [went] out to the media and tried to diminish my reputation for a decision I made that was best for my career individually. It was kind offensive that he would go out and bash a 20-year-old.”
By the time the year was over, it was apparent that Saban and his staff made the right decision going with the true freshman, Hurts. Jalen went on to win the SEC Offensive Player of the Year award, led the team to a 14-0 record, and put the Tide ahead with two minutes left in the national championship game.
It appears, however, that if everything Bateman and Barnett said are true, there was certainly a falter in communication. While Saban understandably would not want to tell the opponent his game plan, perhaps the backups should have been told more ahead of time.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
Jake Weaver is a lead writer for TD Alabama Magazine and Bama Hoops Hype. You can contact him via phone at 205-612-5060, or on Twitter @JWeaver_TDALMag
