JessN: Tide 2014: Coker needs a chance, not crushing pressure

JessN

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Tide 2014: Coker needs a chance, not crushing pressure
by Jess Nicholas
TideFans Editor-In-Chief
June 8th, 2014 12:00 AM

. Recruiting heats up, as does push for ‘Division 4′   By Jess Nicholas, TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief June 8, 2014 When Alabama football officially gets cranked back up for fall practice, the Jacob Coker Watch will start approximately 1 millisecond afterward. Unfortunately for Coker, the expectations for him, which are already high, will simply continue to […]

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JessN

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fyi, sorry about the weird format for this article. Our publication software is having a bad day, apparently.
 

Ole Man Dan

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Good read.
Your assessment confirms what I have thought about the QB race.
Regardless of who our QB is next year, we should treat them like a back up who just entered the game when the #1 went down with a season ending injury. We can't expect any of our guys to start out as a 'World Beater'.
We have to build a QB. It starts with confidence, then progresses from there.

Your assessment of Sims mirrored my thoughts exactly. He may be one of the very best 'Practice QBs', but he hasn't produced when he's been in front of a crowd. That bothers me. This year he was asked to throw, and not try to do it all by running,he didn't perform well.
It was his chance to shine. Didn't happen.

Morris seems to be a perennial member of the 'Dog House',
he can't seem to keep it together to become a front runner.
By default Coker has entered a race that he's favored to win,
but lots of people are gunning for him. Coker's going to be under a microscope.

Sometimes I think if we only had one candidate for QB folks would jump on his band wagon, but having many good candidates, we are of split opinions.

What we need is a QB who can hand off the ball to a great RB, or make a pass into the flats.
We have become very spoiled by AJ the last couple of years. All he ever did was win.
It's not that AJ was the best ever, he just made very few mistakes.

No one on this site liked the label that was hung on AJ. GAME MANAGER...
but... THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED THIS YEAR.

We will need a QB who won't loose the game for us.
We need a QB who will be cool under fire.
Not someone who will panic and try to do it all himself.
 
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RJ YellowHammer

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There are question marks every season, but it's been years since I've been so uncertain about what Bama will look like. Personally, I don't want to let my expectations get too high. I'll just watch and enjoy the year. If we don't win a title of some sort, I won't be one of the fans lighting a pitch fork.
 

TommyMac

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Bateman impressed me in the A-Day game, I think he has the potential to be a goodun. If Coker beats him out for the starter's job, all the better, means we'll have a winner as far as far as I'm concerned.

I'm more concerned with our kicking game. :rolleyes:
 

GrayTide

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Bateman impressed me in the A-Day game, I think he has the potential to be a goodun. If Coker beats him out for the starter's job, all the better, means we'll have a winner as far as far as I'm concerned.

I'm more concerned with our kicking game. :rolleyes:
And offensive line.
 

PDL

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Great article, and I agree wholeheartedly. I've tried to temper my expectations for Coker. Yes, he was the biggest QB transfer this year, and I was really glad we got him, but he still hasn't proven a thing. This isn't like when Russell Wilson transferred to Wisconsin after putting up big numbers at NC State. We still don't know what kind of player Coker can be. I'm glad our fan base is excited about him, but we don't need to crown him All SEC just yet.

Having said that, I'm rooting hard for him, and hope he is able to become one of the greats for us.
 

4Q Basket Case

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Bateman impressed me in the A-Day game, I think he has the potential to be a goodun. If Coker beats him out for the starter's job, all the better, means we'll have a winner as far as far as I'm concerned.

I'm more concerned with our kicking game. :rolleyes:
No need to worry about the kicking game if we never kick. I expect to see a bunch of going for it on 4th down, and a bunch of 2-point conversion attempts. No blue font used or intended.
 

capnfrog

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We really have had good luck as far as injuries to QBs for a few years. The last time I can remember being hampered by injuries at the QB position is when Brodie Croyle was our QB. Sims, Coker or Bateman could go down in the first game or so and all this guessing would be all for moot. I talked briefly with Prince Wimbley today about this same subject and we both agreed that if we had to fall back on our defense this year like we used to do during the Coach Stallings era that we still would have a good team by just asking our QBs and RBs to not lose the game with fumbles and interceptions. Maybe not a NC or SEC championship but still a very good team to be proud of. All else will be just icing on the cake. I remember several games during the Stallings era where the defense would put more points on the board than the offense, or it sure seemed that way.
 

rgw

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I'm with you on this point about Coker. The video of him points more towards solid potential to start than star-in-the-making. The offense would be fine with the former to be quite honest. He doesn't have to reinvent the position, just make percentage plays.
 

CrimsonProf

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We really have had good luck as far as injuries to QBs for a few years. The last time I can remember being hampered by injuries at the QB position is when Brodie Croyle was our QB. Sims, Coker or Bateman could go down in the first game or so and all this guessing would be all for moot. I talked briefly with Prince Wimbley today about this same subject and we both agreed that if we had to fall back on our defense this year like we used to do during the Coach Stallings era that we still would have a good team by just asking our QBs and RBs to not lose the game with fumbles and interceptions. Maybe not a NC or SEC championship but still a very good team to be proud of. All else will be just icing on the cake. I remember several games during the Stallings era where the defense would put more points on the board than the offense, or it sure seemed that way.
Coker doesn't have to be Peyton Manning, but the highlighted won't fly. Back in the Stallings era, most offenses (Florida excluded) were just as bad as ours. That's not how it works anymore. We may not need to score 42 every game, but if we can't put up 24 on a regular basis, we're going to be looking at 8-4.
 

bamaslammer

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I think that "fan pressure" CAN be misleading. As in many things the fans that blow a gasket every time something goes wrong are the ones who tend to call into radio shows, write letters to the paper and publish negative diatribes on message boards. I am hopeful for Coker but there aren't many players like Manziel and Winston who become stars in their first year under center. Most quarterbacks, even outstanding ones have to grow and learn on the job.

Another example is the loss to Auburn. While I could fret over the fact that we weren't prepared for the return I haven't spoken to one Alabama fan who doesn't believe Auburn was whipping our butts most of the second half and such would have continued in any overtime that would have taken place. I hated to lose but after winning two back to back national titles we were on a collision course with a let-down. In fact I'm amazed we managed to push it off till after the LSU game. At least we got that far before the train came off the tracks.

I suffered through the Dubose-Price-Shula disaster. I remember when they said Ole Miss was a better program, I remember when I could always get LSU tickets because nobody wanted to watch Alabama get stomped. I remember when we started quarterbacks who would be a backup for Hoover High school. I remember when our offensive lineman were better ball room dances than blockers (their side step move was off the charts). I walked out of the stadium while the Minnesota coach was on the loud speaker throwing salt on our wounds every step of the way. I sat and watched Tommy Tubberville with his one more finger tradition make fun of Bama and their fans while he enjoyed a free ironbowl victory every year knowing that Alabama's best probation effort wouldn't come close to beating his tigers.

Since Nick Saban arrived I have enjoyed EVERY MINUTE of this ride. There have been bumps for sure as their always will be but the victories I have enjoyed with my family FAR outweigh everything else. I plan on grinning ear to ear as teams from coast to coast chant "We Want Bama" because just like when Mike Tyson was on top of the boxing game, trophies and titles meant nothing until you had faced Iron Mike. Florida State let it slip and then tried to back track but we all know the truth, they hated seeing Alabama fall to Auburn because they knew for that title to truly have it's most value was for Alabama to be there.
 

capnfrog

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Coker doesn't have to be Peyton Manning, but the highlighted won't fly. Back in the Stallings era, most offenses (Florida excluded) were just as bad as ours. That's not how it works anymore. We may not need to score 42 every game, but if we can't put up 24 on a regular basis, we're going to be looking at 8-4.
I figure that if we just out score our opponent, we will win the game. Bamas biggest problem has been that our "D" can't stop the Manziel type QB's. The Barn as well as The Sooners found a QB that resembled Manziel some what and it gave our "D" fits and ultimately a loss. We scored enough points in both games to win most games but we couldn't stop the hurry up type QB's and it cost us a NC. I think Bama has learned some valuable lessons on the hunh and they will come into play this year no matter who our QB is. We may not win them all again this year but we won't have anything to be ashamed of. It's just gonna get better and better.
 

Rama Jama

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The article was spot on, but he doesn't have to more than a game manager with the backfield we have. The real question in my mind is the O-line. I am not convinced that Christobal is the guy to coach them. If the line struggles this year, we know it is not the talent.

As far as the formation of a mega division of big time programs, Coach Bryant had the right idea 40 years ago with the CFA. The NCAA has been rendered useless by the Cam Newton fiasco which was the beginning of the end. If or more likely when the NCAA loses the major football programs, their only hope is that the other schools don't figure out that they can get a much bigger piece of the pie for the basketball tournament than they get now simply by forming their own organization.
 
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CrimsonEyeshade

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The article was spot on, but he doesn't have to more than a game manager with the backfield we have. The real question in my mind is the O-line. I am not convinced that Christobal is the guy to coach them. If the line struggles this year, we know it is not the talent.
With all due respect, RJ, we overestimated a bunch of offensive linemen before Cristobal entered the building. The drop-off from 2012 to 2013 was immense.

As to Coker or whomever: The most realistic thing we can hope for is to win with defense and the running game for as long as we can. The Florida game is scary. If we can run the ball on them, the rest of the football world will be wetting their pants. If not, "game manager" goes out the window a few weeks earlier than ideal.
 
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