I think the linchpin is David Cornwell.
Meaning, I think that after the spring, the coaches were approaching this fall as (a) get Jake Coker ready to go, and if he can't go, (b) we've got this highly-skilled redshirt freshman, who improved in the spring, waiting in the wings.
Except once fall camp went live, Cornwell has either regressed or simply not stepped up.
If you listen to what Saban is suggesting he wants this year (i.e., a low-error game manager), then Morris should be the presumptive favorite. But he also has the lowest ceiling of the five and I'm not sure (and they're not sure, either) that he can win a game if it comes down to that. So they keep trying to get Coker ready, because Coker does have a good (physical, at least) skill set.
The problem is, they don't have their Plan B. The original Plan B was Cornwell, so he's basically got another week plus one more scrimmage to back up what he did in the spring. Otherwise, they're looking at the following Plan Bs: The aforementioned, modestly-skilled junior (Morris), a good athlete with a pop-gun arm (Bateman) or the true freshman who is extremely boom-bust right now and just threw a couple of pick-sixes in a scrimmage (Barnett).
Hence, why I think you keep seeing so many snaps go to Coker, and unless one of the other four takes a big step forward (or unless, perish the thought, Coker takes a big step back), Coker's the guy for Wisconsin at least. I will be very interested to see if Morris gets a greater share of the 1-v-1 work in the coming days.
Meaning, I think that after the spring, the coaches were approaching this fall as (a) get Jake Coker ready to go, and if he can't go, (b) we've got this highly-skilled redshirt freshman, who improved in the spring, waiting in the wings.
Except once fall camp went live, Cornwell has either regressed or simply not stepped up.
If you listen to what Saban is suggesting he wants this year (i.e., a low-error game manager), then Morris should be the presumptive favorite. But he also has the lowest ceiling of the five and I'm not sure (and they're not sure, either) that he can win a game if it comes down to that. So they keep trying to get Coker ready, because Coker does have a good (physical, at least) skill set.
The problem is, they don't have their Plan B. The original Plan B was Cornwell, so he's basically got another week plus one more scrimmage to back up what he did in the spring. Otherwise, they're looking at the following Plan Bs: The aforementioned, modestly-skilled junior (Morris), a good athlete with a pop-gun arm (Bateman) or the true freshman who is extremely boom-bust right now and just threw a couple of pick-sixes in a scrimmage (Barnett).
Hence, why I think you keep seeing so many snaps go to Coker, and unless one of the other four takes a big step forward (or unless, perish the thought, Coker takes a big step back), Coker's the guy for Wisconsin at least. I will be very interested to see if Morris gets a greater share of the 1-v-1 work in the coming days.
