Re: Spring Practice Thread (Interviews, Press Conferences, Practice Reports)
Here's the thing with Cooper Bateman, there's no question he has the physical tools required to run Alabama's offense. Alabama doesn't base their offense on cannon arms and Kiffin has shown the ability to adjust to the strengths and weaknesses of the quarterback. So, physically Bateman can run the offense. That's not the issue.
The issue is that he's not the most physically talented quarterback of the bunch. Not only that, but he's unique in that he did get a shot (tough circumstance, yes) and that didn't really go so great. The Coker and Sims detractors didn't have that type of an outing to point to, they only had struggles in scrimmages and the like, and yes Coker, Sims, Barnett, Bateman and Cornwell have all really struggled at times under those circumstances. So, people have a little more concrete evidence to doubt Bateman on. Things worked out just fine, but we all know Bateman should have been more aggressive running the ball against Ole Miss and we all question why he didn't.
Consider this fact, Jacob Coker ran for 58 yards and 1 touchdown against Ole Miss! So you look at Bateman's performance, and his 48.3 QBR and you do have a legitimate reason to question him. Coker out-threw and outran him, that shouldn't have happened. So this is one case in which the doubts are warranted. I think we know Bateman can do it, but we also know something went wrong in that game and some of that has to rest on Bateman's shoulders. There's not a whole lot of times you can blame a loss on an Alabama quarterback but this appears to be one time in which that might be valid.
Having said that I will reiterate I think Bateman can do the job if he has to, but there's some valid doubt that creeps in. On the other hand, Cornwell appears to be a completely legitimate option himself. He has the tools, he was highly ranked out of high school, he's a solid option. But, it does go back to Barnett and the intrigue he brings. All these other quarterback battles came down to two guys really once the coaches got serious about picking a starter. Barnett has a legitimate chance of making that a 3 QB race (of Cornwell hasn't messed up last year it might have been a 3 QB race then), and it's not just about Barnett having a shot. One way of putting it is Barnett is a better runner than Cornwell and has a better arm than Bateman. That's one way of putting it, but another way is to say out of the Alabama starters, his arm is second only to Coker and his running ability is second only to Sims. He's a really, really talented guy and kind of like OJ Howard, regardless of what he is or isn't doing you always have to look over there and just imagine what could be.
There's a lot that remains to be seen, I don't think anything will be determined anytime soon, but I do think this is one situation in which a lot of the speculation really is warranted. Arguably, Alabama has the weakest heir to the starting job, but the strongest #3, which really opens things up.