Fall Practice Updates (Practice reports, Interviews, and Scrimmage Notes)

RTR91 said:

Yep. Appears Bama is going to being using play card signs. Link

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Frankly, as long as it helps us win, he can have ballerinas on a trapeze over the 50 yard line for all I care.

KrAzY3 said:

For the record, Coker had 403 yards and more touchdowns (4) last year. That doesn't mean he's better or did better, but it's funny how one is supposedly one of the SEC's best quarterbacks (third team All-SEC) and the other (according to some at least) isn't good enough to start.

That doesn't mean he isn't legitimate, but for a while there last year Kenny Smith was a Heisman candidate and he ended up getting benched. Johnson might be the real deal but the simple fact is he's unproven.

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And for all the talk about how good Jeremy Johnson looked in 1 half against Arkansas, people forgot that Blake Sims go hurt during the Florida game and Coker had to come in at a very critical point in the game. I believe we were only up a touchdown at the time, and Coker took us down the field to score a touchdown. Very clutch when we needed him.

Sure Johnson based on that one half may be amazing this year, but you could argue the same thing for Coker having to come in cold off the bench in a critical game situation.

PDL said:

And for all the talk about how good Jeremy Johnson looked in 1 half against Arkansas, people forgot that Blake Sims go hurt during the Florida game and Coker had to come in at a very critical point in the game. I believe we were only up a touchdown at the time, and Coker took us down the field to score a touchdown. Very clutch when we needed him.

Sure Johnson based on that one half may be amazing this year, but you could argue the same thing for Coker having to come in cold off the bench in a critical game situation.

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I think people forgot how solid Coker was last year. His slow progression this year, or what ever, seems to have made people forget that he did pretty good. 4 TDs, no interceptions, solid stats. The question remains if he could lead the team to a come from behind victory in the fourth quarter or something, but the question certainly applies to Johnson as well.

Tideflyer said:

Frankly, as long as it helps us win, he can have ballerinas on a trapeze over the 50 yard line for all I care.

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JK will have something to aim at :smile:

KrAzY3 said:

I think people forgot how solid Coker was last year. His slow progression this year, or what ever, seems to have made people forget that he did pretty good. 4 TDs, no interceptions, solid stats. The question remains if he could lead the team to a come from behind victory in the fourth quarter or something, but the question certainly applies to Johnson as well.

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I remember him playing well. I also remember this.

RTR91 said:

I remember him playing well. I also remember this.

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Yah there's no excuse for that throw. On the proceeding play he actually shows some good mobility....but the play following that one he takes a sack to end the half. The good news is that I believe that kind of inaccuracy can improve with reps and practice - all of which he should have after last season and this offseason. We shall certainly see.

The last day of fall camp is the first day of Wisconsin preparation.

BOL practice report

RTR91 said:

I remember him playing well. I also remember this.

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I know he has areas that could improve, I'm just not that worried about it.

I remember JPW, heck in that undefeated 2008 regular season he had 9 TDs and 7 INTs for the year, to go with a completion percentage of 57.9. I also remember Marc Guillon... I don't worry that we see the position regress to the point that we're just hoping the QB doesn't hurt us more than they help us.

Blake Sims had things he couldn't do and those became a fixation from some people prior to the season, Coker has things he can't do, they'll focus on what the quarterback can do. I understand your point though, but it just seems to me that people as a whole have become overly pessimistic about the position. To me it's still more of an embarrassment of riches rather than cause for great concern at the position. May be there's no major game changer, but I have little doubt that Alabama has quarterbacks (plural) they can win with.

Any mention of who got the most reps today at QB?


*I am in now way, shape or form an insider and have never claimed to be.*

Unless it is unexpectedly bad, they'll figure something out to field a competitive football team one way or another. Too much talent for us to completely suck because the QB isn't great. If the QB is just reliable and not error prone, we could be a contender if the other components are great.

If we handed the ball off every down & an occasion quic hitter over the middle to keep D's honest, we would still be in the hunt for a NC..Running the ball is what this football program was built on & I for one would love to get back to that kinda offense..We have peopl sitting on the bench that played RB in high school & could easily transition back to give that position depth..As Krazy pointed out it's more of an embarrassment of riches..We will be fine just have faith in the best HC in the history of the game perhaps by the time he retires from Bama..

I believe the thing with the QB battles and how the media gets worked up over it is that they just don't get Saban's off-season approach. He doesn't set a depth chart until the week of game 1. It doesn't even mean that much, he just does it to end questions in the lead up to the game.

QB is just another position to him. He doesn't put it on a pedestal and won't start saying one guy is his guy until game week...and usually he still throws down an "OR" on the QB1 line just to mess with the media.

The odd thing about QBs with Saban is that he has a very collegiate approach when it is an open competition (he doesn't show favoritism and lets the competition for QB1 work itself out) but once he picks a guy he takes a very NFL approach where he doesn't really rail on them much...kinda puts the fate of the team in their hands.

At least publicly. I'm sure it isn't that nice and peachy behind the scenes.

I'm getting the sense we are going to be fine whichever guy we go with. CLK will bring our QB along, and we've got a promising running game to boot. Just my optimistic opinion.

fundytide said:

I wonder if the defense could use a similar communication system to speed up communications to match HUNH offenses.

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Great point, brother...

Of course, as we both know, on defense, it's a substitution / personnel thing...

WMack4Bama said:

Good things from practice today, all. If this carries over, we beat Whisky by 5 TDs.

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Anything specific you could share?

WMack4Bama said:

Good things from practice today, all. If this carries over, we beat Whisky by 5 TDs.

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I am smiling after reading this post. Thank you from those of us who cannot be there to see the progress. I have great hope for the coming season. Roll Tide!