Alabama notes: Saban gives little insight to Alabama’s quarterback battle

Alabama coach Nick Saban did very little to reveal any insight on Alabama’s quarterback battle. With the departure of last year’s starter, Jake Coker, the Tide is searching for a new starter behind center for a third straight season.

Last year, Coker passed for 3,110 yards with 21 touchdowns. The Tide currently has four players vying for the quarterback opening in redshirt junior Cooper Bateman, redshirt sophomore David Cornwell, redshirt freshman Blake Barnett and true freshman Jalen Hurts.

“Somebody’s got to win that job,” Saban said. “Somebody’s got to win the team.

“You know, that has not necessarily happened yet and, you know, I’m not going to sit up here and sort of try to, you know — I don’t know the right word, but give you some statistics on who’s winning the race and how the race is going and who’s ahead, are they on the back stretch or in the final turn.

“That’s something that’s going to happen probably in fall camp.”

Less depth on defense

Last season, Alabama was able to rotate several players across its defensive line due to its extreme depth up front. With the loss of NFL draftees Reggie Ragland, A’Shawn Robinson and Jarran Reed, the Tide will not have quite that same luxury this season.

Alabama returns several playmakers to its front seven. However, players such as junior Tim Williams, junior Rashaan Evans and redshirt senior Ryan Anderson who played in situational packages last season might need to take on fuller roles this year.

“That was unique that we had that kind of depth on last year’s team,” Saban said. “I don’t think we’ll have it on this year’s team, even though we have some really good players. It will be more challenging for us to create some different roles for some other guys who can sort of have a role so that these guys don’t have to play all of the downs in the game, because when we’ve had teams like that in the past, those guys aren’t fresh on third down and it affects your ability to pass rush.”

Same Ole problem

Saban was asked about Alabama’s back-to-back losses to Ole Miss the past two seasons. Ole Miss is only SEC team to beat the Tide the past two years, winning 23-17 in 2014 before beating Alabama 43-37 last season.

Saban highlighted Alabama’s mistakes over the two meetings, particularly last years game in Tuscaloosa where the Tide turned the ball over five times against the Rebels.

“They played on a short field and scored a lot of points,” Saban said of Ole Miss. “They made a couple big plays that, you know, we didn’t defend very well. We had some breakdowns in the secondary.

“I think if you’re going play well against those kinds of teams who are very prolific offensive teams and play good defense, you got to play good field position, first of all, and we’re going to have to do a better job of eliminating the big play so they don’t score so many points.”

Alabama will play Ole Miss in Oxford on Sept. 17.

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 3:06 PM with the headline "Alabama notes: Saban gives little insight to Alabama’s quarterback battle."