He threw a grand total of 19 passes against Western Kentucky, Kent State and a defeated USC team. The 2 passes he completed during a competitive part of the USC game went for a total of 3 yards. Come on guy...
Ok - look - I'll try to let it go.
FWIW, I think we can all agree that ONE point is beyond dispute - BB is today a BUST, and a second transfer almost certainly seals his fate. No doubt about it.
The post above about "winning the locker room" is likely the real answer here, and I DO accept that it's all spilt milk now.
But I watched the games too. In week 2 a "blind man" could see that the decision had already been made between the QB's - and that was proven in week 3. In week 4, BB got the same "support" from the OL and receivers that Jalen got in the first half of A-Day.
IF
ALL you knew about JH was what you saw at A-Day last weekend, would you think he'd ever start for any SEC team?? Might you even be calling Jalen a "deer in the headlights", IF that was all you knew about him??
Thing is - here's what I saw at the outset of the USC game. I saw an Alabama OL that couldn't find its collective "backside' with both hands for about 4 offensive series. Starting in the Fifth Offensive series they settled down and player pretty well the rest of the night. Reality is,
ANY QB who played after those first 4 series would have looked pretty good. Cooper Bateman would have looked pretty good. JPW would have looked pretty good.
What I saw was BB get the first two series behind a very poorly functioning OL. He successfully called all plays, even audible'd out of a play once - no one was lined up in the wrong place, no one went the wrong direction. He attempted three passes, two were complete and the one Incomplete was low, but STILL hit Ridley in the hands and Clavin dropped it. BB took a sack on this first 3rd down (a blitz), on his second third down he completed a pass for positive yards with an unblocked rusher coming in full speed.
2-3 passing for +3 yards, one sack, no other mistakes, +14 yards total offense. Yea, a "deer in the headlights."
Then he was pulled. Jalen got the next two series.
First play is a screwup - Jalen botches a simple hand-off and the ball is turned over. (Supposedly a "Cardinal Sin" in Saban's eyes - right?) On the next series, JH hands the ball off twice, then on 3rd down rolls out to pass - doesn't see his primary receiver open, tucks the ball to run - NO GAIN. Punt.
1-1 passing (if you don't count the aborted called-pass on the third down play) - MINUS 1 yard passing, One turnover, one scramble for no gain.
Minus 2 yards total offense.
So neither QB was exactly blowing it up - but one didn't make any obvious errors, and even stood in the pocket and made a clutch completion under hard pressure. The other made repeated mistakes.
Yet from that point forward, Barnett never again got even ONE more meaningful snap at UA.
Why not?
You are free to disagree, of course. But those facts (and all the stats ARE facts) are why I've believed since the night of the USCw game that the decision to go "sand lot" was made BEFORE the game started.
Of course, "The rest is history" - Once the OL tightened up and kept Jalen clean, he blew the game open, just as he's done in EVERY GAME* SINCE..... (* when he's not under
ANY pressure).
BB quit - bailed on the team and made a really stupid choice to transfer to Az State, sealing his fate as a "Never Was", and he will soon be forgotten completely.
But What might have happened had our Coaches NOT decided to roll the dice with "Sandlot" football in 2016?
Of course, We'll never know.
All we know for sure is that it didn't work, and Alabama is apparently going to run out of a base offense that's mostly "pro style" for the foreseeable future.
So there you have it. I'll let it go, if Y'all will. :wink:
