As camp gets underway...

Blake's dad told al.com a couple of weeks ago he's added some weight.

Alabama freshman quarterback Blake Barnett met with team nutritionist Amy Bragg and strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran earlier this month.

Frustrated by a lack of progress in gaining weight, Barnett hoped to construct a diet that would help in his quest to get bigger in advance of preseason practice and the season, his father, Lance, told AL.com.

The diet plan put together by Bragg and Cochran has helped Barnett put on around five pounds in two weeks, adding to the total since the California native arrived to Tuscaloosa as one of eight Tide early enrollees in January.

Ranked by ESPN as a five-star recruit and top pocket passer in this year's recruiting class, the 6-foot-5 Barnett is up to 208 pounds after weighing 190 in January and 200 pounds when spring practice ended in April.

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Thanks '81 n '91...

RTR91 said:

Blake's dad told al.com a couple of weeks ago he's added some weight.

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I did not realize he was that tall. He could probably stand to weight 230-240.

TideEngineer08 said:

I think it's really difficult to get something past Nick Saban more than once. The HUNH seems to have done that for the last few years. I believe this is because it did not exploit a flaw in his scheme so much as it exploited a loophole in the rule book. So, instead of simply plugging a hole in his scheme (as he did after the 2008 season to account for Florida/Tebow), he has had to spend a few seasons tweaking his roster through recruiting to account for the rulebook exploitation that is the HUNH.

I agree with you and think this is the year we start to see greater success against these offenses.

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I agree 100% with what you and Rolltide1224 are saying. Coach Saban has been working on shutting down thes HUNH teams for the past few years and with the recruits he has been bringing in I feel that we will be more prepared this year than in years past to put a hurtin on them.

Derrick Gore has good size and speed. watch his highlights if you get a chance. he gives us much needed depth at RB.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1346575/derrick-gore

BamaMoon said:

I totally agree with that logic as long as the veteran isn't obviously a better fit and/or could lead us to a championship. However, if Barnes is in the same ball park of "readiness" I agree!

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Judging from what I've been told, the coaches don't trust Coker to be consistent. He has the physical ability, but struggles with reads and ball security. I feel Coker just needs confidence in himself and he'd be OK. He may be a gamer who plays better in games than in practice. I've always wondered why if Cornwell was so good, why did OU let him get away? He supposedly did not have an offer from them, and he is from Norman.

I feel whoever is the starter, he'll be handing the ball off the DH or KD most of the time anyway until he gets his confidence built up.

Rama Jama said:

Judging from what I've been told, the coaches don't trust Coker to be consistent. He has the physical ability, but struggles with reads and ball security. I feel Coker just needs confidence in himself and he'd be OK. He may be a gamer who plays better in games than in practice. I've always wondered why if Cornwell was so good, why did OU let him get away? He supposedly did not have an offer from them, and he is from Norman.

I feel whoever is the starter, he'll be handing the ball off the DH or KD most of the time anyway until he gets his confidence built up.

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He played his junior and senior years in Norman, but he traveled due to his dad's job. IIRC, OU didn't offer him because they already had a big QB prospect connected to OU.

Thanks Jess

BamaMoon said:

I know we love our tradition and we read alot into CNS's traditional way of doing things. However, it is certainly possible that two major things are happening here:

1. We have a generational talent who just happens to be a true freshman. Conventional/common sense wisdom tells us he's not ready -- physically or mentally -- for the rigors of the SEC. However, it's possible that we are underestimating how good this kid really is -- and is going to be with just a little bit of experience. Is he good enough and smart enough to lead the team now -- baby feeding him and leaning on our strong run game???

2. Maybe Coker, Cornwell and company are not ready any more than Barnett. Coker, if all the hype is true, ought to be running away with this thing.

I think we should hesitate to compare this to last year...because it's a new year. We all might just be blown away on Sept. 5!

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1. BB's definitely a generational talent. His skill set and performance thus far have convinced me of that. IMO he'll be the starter as a RSS based on most recent info.

2. Yes Coker should have separated himself from all the rest at this point. If it's an even race in 2 weeks go with Cornwell or Morris and develop BB.

And I agree with your final statement. This QB race is not even close to BS/JC a year ago. It is a new year and it better resembles the McCarron/Simms race only it's not a to horse race this time.

The 5th can't get here soon enough!

Jess Stellar post as always.

It is still way early into the camp so need to see QB's in a game situation to really evaluate.
Not surprised Morris is near top. He knows the system the best and appears to offer steadiness
that CNS desires and remains viable to run the Kiffin offense.

I believe CNS / CLK will eventually stick with Coker on the win now with the best option mindset.
But Morris could surprise many since 90% of chatter is on Coker and Barnwell.

Had hoped Barnett could redshirt and benefit us for the future as we all know the pitfalls of
starting a freshman at any spot.

Not surprised by Gore. Just watch the tape. OK the defense there is poor but he has moves
we need to work. Looks like cross between Ingram and T Jones. We need all the RB

This is an odd year because I've never discounted Saban's preference for the most experienced QB as the starter but the circumstances are different this year. Coker and Cornwell are both 2 years into the Alabama program but Coker is a fifth-year season with time at backup while with FSU. So Coker is more purely experienced and developed as a QB but probably knows the Alabama playbook just about as well as the next guy.


We shall see...it has played out in favor of experience in McElroy v. Jackson, McCarron v. P. Sims, and B. Sims v. Coker.

Whoever it is, I trust Saban to make the right decision. He will mold his game plans around the skills of the guy who wins the job.

Before we go too far down the rabbit hole on this one, I think it should just be generally pointed out that camp is still in its infancy and nothing of serious moment has occurred for anyone.

When the full pads go on and the first scrimmage starts, that is when you can start reading the tea leaves and penciling some things in. None of that has happened, though, so anything beyond some random takeaway observations -- particularly when we are talking about young guys who just showed up on campus -- is entirely premature. Everything at this point just has to come with golf-ball-sized grains of salt.

No doubt, it is just about useless to gauge things by some warm-up throws by the QBs. It would be like giving up on a game by how the pre-game warm-up drills go

On Coker and the QB race, I don't believe there is much to be said that hasn't already been said a thousand times over, so I'll just try to add a couple of things:

If you have a fifth-year senior at QB who has some real talent and potential and who has acclimated himself to the system, any coach worth his salt will naturally want that person to be their starting quarterback. Coker is, I'm sure, the preference for the staff in that respect. Some CFB coaches -- regardless of whether it would be the right or wrong decision -- would essentially award Coker the job on this basis. But our staff has never given a great deal of deference to seniority in making personnel decisions, and they will not award Coker the job by default, he will have to affirmatively win it during the scrimmages the next two weeks.

Now, none of this is necessarily new for Coker. We had him in this very situation just a year ago, and he just didn't get it done, plain and simple. Sims outperformed him when it counted the most, and the rest is history. Maybe that happens again this year, maybe not. We will see how performances come to bear in the scrimmages, and that will dictate who starts against Wisconsin.

Moving forward, it will be what it will be, but either way I do not believe that whoever gets the job initially will have a particularly long leash. That is not to say that the named starter -- whoever that will be -- will get yanked after a few bad possessions or a costly turnover or two, but I do believe that none of these guys have the capital necessary to survive a prolonged swoon (i.e. two or three weeks of struggles). The remaining guys have too much talent and potential to just sit idly by when that happens, and our staff has never been particularly hesitant to pull the plug on a player who is struggling, even at the more demanding positions. No one really knows how this will all shape up, but unless one player just comes out and seizes this by the reins, it could be a fluid situation over a lengthy period of time.

^ This reads/seems like a reasonable summary of the situation after 3 practices.

BubbaOne said:

Jess Stellar post as always.

It is still way early into the camp so need to see QB's in a game situation to really evaluate.
Not surprised Morris is near top. He knows the system the best and appears to offer steadiness
that CNS desires and remains viable to run the Kiffin offense.

I believe CNS / CLK will eventually stick with Coker on the win now with the best option mindset.
But Morris could surprise many since 90% of chatter is on Coker and Barnwell.

Had hoped Barnett could redshirt and benefit us for the future as we all know the pitfalls of
starting a freshman at any spot.

Not surprised by Gore. Just watch the tape. OK the defense there is poor but he has moves
we need to work. Looks like cross between Ingram and T Jones. We need all the RB

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Don't tell me we have yet another QB in the mix...

Rush said:

Don't tell me we have yet another QB in the mix...

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he did the same thing in another thread. I don't think he knows the correct names.

Well if we could just combine two of our QBs into one then I think we'll be fine!

Well, this discussion about how skinny Barnett is has been going on for months now. You people have totally convinced me that even if Barnett is the best QB to have ever set foot on the university of Alabama campus he will not play because he is not fat enough. Thanks.