Yes, but some people seem to think transferring at all is quitting - i.e. Jalen Hurts transferring would be quitting.
Blake Barnett transferring again
- Thread starter colbysullivan
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Yes, but some people seem to think transferring at all is quitting - i.e. Jalen Hurts transferring would be quitting.
IF Jalen does transfer, and I do think there is a strong possibility of it, then I would hold no ill will for him at all if he either 1) does his transfer before we get into summer practice or 2) does it after the completion of the next season. We can't blame him for wanting to go where he has the best shot to play and realize as many of his dreams as possible, can we? However, if we get close to the season starting or a few games in and he pulls a Blake Barnett, then I will come to think of him with several similar feelings as I have for Barnett. The difference there would be that Jalen did play his absolute best for us for two years, got us to 2 National Championships, and has shown a lot of class throughout, at least on the surface (since I am not in any way privy to what happens in the locker room). So, yeah, I would think negatively of him, but probably not as much so as I do Barnett.
I don't know. Do it once, and it can come off as a "this place wasn't right for me" kind of situation. It happens. But it now looks like a pattern with Barnett. Go to a school, fail to get the starting job, go somewhere else. Maybe he should just work harder? Or maybe he isn't cut out to be a starting QB in college football? I have no way of assessing that myself. But he does seem to give in pretty easily.
Are players who leave early for the NFL quitters? I mean, they have eligibility left.
I know exactly what you're saying - and I agree totally.
I thought when Zow's phony looking play fake was devastatingly effective more than once.
On the flip side, if you put those two QBs with Saban and the current two with Dubious......Saban would turn Zow/Watts into a lethal combo, Hurts would start and have about a .500 record, and Tua would have transferred somewhere he could throw the ball.
I couldn't articulate what you just said, but those were my thoughts on the post too.
Rut-Roh!!!
Thing is - NOBODY CARES when a coach leaves for a better (or even just a different) job - esp. if the coach isn't exactly "blowing it up", which certainly was the case for Nick Saban in Miami.
But Saban made two GIANT "Mistakes" in leaving the Dolphins. He angered a VERY Vocal Dad - because Nick Saban was leaving to replace DON SHULA's son, and Don Shula still "Draws a lot of water" in Miami.
Saban also angered ESPiN because ANY Coach voluntarily leaving an NFL job for a college job (absent some sort of extenuating circumstances, like rescuing his Alma-Mater) disrupts their "Narrative" that the NFL is THE "end all" of ALL sports leagues, and NO ONE would DARE leave "Utopia" unless they were forced out.
If Saban had been a Cleveland or Buffalo or St. Louis, and he had been fired rather than quitting, chances are his departure would have been met with a huge YAWN from most of the media.
Which is why the furor over Barnett's transfer has always baffled me just a little. I can "Get" if a starting QB, or any other key starter or key reserve leaves mid season. But why all the heartburn over a supposedly "Worthless" backup QB, who (according to most fans) was a "deer in the headlights", "couldn't cut it" and was "Unable to handle the pressure"???
Why care at all if such a worthless player leaves? Its not like he was going to ever get even a single more meaningful snaps at UA - E V E R. Had he been on the roster against Clem in the NC, does anyone REALLY think BB would have gotten the same shot Tua got this past January - with Jalen sitting at 14-0 as a starter?
Respectfully, No Way!
So I've never really understood all the anger, and particularly all the anger now - almost two years later.
Here's a question: CNS rolled the dice with Hurts instead of Barnett in game one against USC (I know Barnett started but it seems the plan was to get Hurts in the game ASAP). FWIW, I figure with enough time, Barnes would have settled in and led us to a win against USC because they were woefully overmatched. But, we all know the story of how Jalen led us to an undefeated season, until we got the the Clemson game.
So here's the question: Anybody think we might have dropped an early game with Barnett learning to be a passer (something Jalen didn't have to worry about because he used his legs), but by the end of the season would he have been the better fit to lead us to a win over Clemson?
So here's the question: Anybody think we might have dropped an early game with Barnett learning to be a passer (something Jalen didn't have to worry about because he used his legs), but by the end of the season would he have been the better fit to lead us to a win over Clemson?
I don't think that's what being said or inferred on this forum. What's being said on this forum is taking your ball and going home during the season is viewed as quitting. Transferring has become a part of "the game" and for the most part is completely understood and accepted. If Jalen transfers before the season begins, then I don't think anyone is going to shame him or view him as a quitter. If he waits until after the fourth game, then transfers? Yeah, it won't be taken the same as if he would have transferred before the season. Timing matters.
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At the time I felt this way - long before the loss to Clemson I worried that you might regret the decision to start Jalen since it led to Barnett's defection. But his poor play since has shown me that Saban actually saw more than we did, and made his decision based on data that would carry over from Alabama to AZ. Barnett just isn't as good as we all thought he would be.
That would bother me a little because it would cost Mac Jones snaps in practice, but your early schedule is so easy that I don't think it would hurt the team. But I wouldn't hold it against him unless he waited until the season was underway.
This is the main reason you don't spoil your kid/s. I think he has a high opinion of himself and thinks he deserves to be the starter on his history as a "Bama QB" and being offered scholarships out of h.s. He quit on us, runs of ASU thinking he would start there when eligible and is now running from there because he isn't the top dog there. Yes I can feel for him somewhat because his head coach was now Herm Edwards, but I have a feeling he hasn't learned a thing about earning the top spot and I think he'll quit on USF at some point, whether it be on or off the field when things aren't going right. That's his history.
He needs to stay somewhere and concentrate on becoming thecstartet there. It would be a real shame to burn all of your eligibily in transfers and starting over. The Pros will never notice him that way...
I have said this on several occasions, but I still believe it to be valid. These hot shot 4 and 5 star QB recruits need to have someone (parents, high school coaches, guidance counselor or whomever) and realistically advise these kids (17-18 years old) on what is best for their college careers and where they should go. I don't give a damn how good they are in high school there is always somebody better. Just as an example, Blake Barnett who had a gazillion offers, should have been advised that his chances of starting at UC Berkley, Washington, UCLA, ASU or some other PAC12 school were significantly better than at Alabama.
Dabo and Smart are getting ready to face the exact same situation we have with Fromm/Fields at UGA and Bryant/Lawrence at Clemson. At some point someone should step in and keep these kids from making these mistakes. You may laugh, but IMO Fields or Lawrence could probably start this fall for UT, or Florida. They need to understand going with the current biggest name is not all it is cracked up to be.
Dabo and Smart are getting ready to face the exact same situation we have with Fromm/Fields at UGA and Bryant/Lawrence at Clemson. At some point someone should step in and keep these kids from making these mistakes. You may laugh, but IMO Fields or Lawrence could probably start this fall for UT, or Florida. They need to understand going with the current biggest name is not all it is cracked up to be.
Leaves immediately? Or Leaves in December post graduation?
If he left right away that would be Barnett-like and I'd be pretty ticked that he took Fall reps away from Tua AND Mac Jones.
I honestly can't see Jalen doing that. I think if/when he loses the QB1 battle he will at least stay through the season and graduate.
It would be moronic for him or anyone to transfer being 1 semester away from a degree. Most schools only accept 2 years worth of transfer credits.
Respectfully, had Alabama stayed with what we had been doing for some years prior - Pro-Style with some read-option concepts, Barnett would have been our starter in 2016 - and that's not even subject to argument, it's an indisputable fact. Jalen, for all his many great talents, is abysmal at running a Pro-style offense. Even TODAY, Three years into the failed experiment, Jalen still can't operate effectively as a pocket passer - as we all witnessed at A-Day.
ALSO, BB signed a year Before Jalen, and at the time he signed was easily the most highly regarded QB Alabama had EVER signed.
At some point AFTER BB was enrolled and on the roster, a decision was made in Tuscaloosa to abandon the Pro-Style and basically "flip the script" with an offense that was primarily Read-option, with some Pro style concepts. So basically, BB found himself in the same situation as Colin Peek was in at GaTech in 2007 when Chan Gailey was fired and Paul Johnson was hired.
Johnson didn't use Tight Ends - so Peek's choice was either:
(1) to change positions and hope he could adapt, OR
(2) Ride the bench and never play for the rest of his time at GaTech, OR
(3) Transfer.
BB faced the same dilemma. He's mobile for a pocket passer, but not compared to a read-option QB - Barnett is a Prototypical "Pro-style QB". So just like Colin Peek, BB found himself at a school that no longer used his position.
The DIFFERENCE between Peek and Barnett is that Peek found out that he was no longer welcome at GaTech in December 2007. Barnett didn't find out until the Ole Miss game - week 3 of the 2016 season. IF you remember, Saban and Kiffin were very tight lipped about the QB situation and the change to a primarily Read Option offense, and after the Thrilling win at Ole Miss, NO ONE was challenging them about it.
The questions didn't start until the LSu game in November....
I promise you they hear that all the time from other coaches recruiting them - i.e. CJ Mosley being told by every school that if he went to 'Bama that he'd be stuck on the depth chart.
Even Saban tells them they are going to have to compete hard to get any playing time. No playing time is given at 'Bama - it's earned. Thing is, some kids take that the right way, to be the best I have to beat the best and are motivated, and others hear that and just assume they'll be the best without the time and effort to get there, and then don't handle it all that well when it doesn't work out perfectly for them.
This feels like a HUGE stretch. If Barnett was better at running a pro style offense than Jalen was at running our 2016 offense then we would likely have rolled with that. Idk why you think Barnett can run ANY offense effectively at all. We've never seen it
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