So ... Quarterbacks

[TideMan09]

I really wish we would take some pressure off Coker & go back to what we do best, running the football, and allow the strength of our offense, our O-Line dominate the game with a time consuming running game..That would allow Coker to be a "Game Manager" as he gets more comfortable running our offense, plus, it would keep The Rebels offense on the sideline & off the field this coming weeks game..I have no doubt Coker can lead our offense to a NC, but, I think we need to get back to what The Crimson Tide does best "Running The Football" , to set up our offense to pass the ball, after the D is worn out & down from tackling Henry & Drake as the game wears on..JMHO

 

[81usaf92]

I really wish we would take some pressure off Coker & go back to what we do best, running the football, and allow the strength of our offense, our O-Line dominate the game with a time consuming running game..That would allow Coker to be a "Game Manager" as he gets more comfortable running our offense, plus, it would keep The Rebels offense on the sideline & off the field this coming weeks game..I have no doubt Coker can lead our offense to a NC, but, I think we need to get back to what The Crimson Tide does best "Running The Football" , to set up our offense to pass the ball, after the D is worn out & down from tackling Henry & Drake as the game wears on..JMHO

I seriously think that we will run 70% of the time next week

 

[bradley30]

This is my feeling as well. Unfortunately. Because of our schedule and qb situation.

Our 1st loss will be Georgia, if not this Saturday, if they don't get it together quick.

 

[TideMan09]

I seriously think that we will run 70% of the time next week

I would love to see that happen cause our O-Line & running game needs to the focus of our offense..Coker hasn't ran an offense in a few year & needs more game-time reps to allow him to catch up to the speed of the game on the college level..

 

[81usaf92]

Our 1st loss will be Georgia, if not this Saturday, if they don't get it together quick.

Unless UGA all of the sudden develops a passing game then we should win. Ole miss is harder to predict.

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Our 1st loss will be Georgia, if not this Saturday, if they don't get it together quick.

Georgia didn't really have good game this past weekend either... Let's not jump to conclusion...

 

[bradley30]

Georgia didn't really have good game this past weekend either... Let's not jump to conclusion...

Okay. 1st road game in a hostile environment. I only said we'd lose if the QB play doesn't get better.

 

[rgw]

Coker has some pluses and minuses but the fact he's been the starter both games and had the opportunity to play through adversity kinda shows that he's prohibitively "the guy" for the staff. I'm concerned with his lack of touch on the deep ball in both games and his decisions to throw it deep against better judgement in the MTSU game. He doesn't seem to regain rhythm well. The first half of the Wisconsin game was really up and down. He'd have a bad series followed by a series where he was dialed in. In the MTSU game, he seemed to get a bit rattled midway through the half and never really fully recovered.

He's shown pretty poor decision making in the pocket. I realize he's not going to make chicken salad out of busted protection like Blake Sims but he's not realizing when it's lost then getting rid of the ball or running for a minimum gain or loss like McCarron or McElroy either. I hope that more playing time will improve that internal clock and awareness for Coker but it is a concern heading into a game with a pretty serious front four. I have to imagine that Ole Miss' defensive coaches are licking their chops when they see how slowly Coker identifies a collapsing pocket and how long he keeps the ball when trying to scramble out of it late.

Bateman is an interesting option but I don't think he's as far along as a passer. His bubble screen passes have a bad tendency of almost being laterals behind the WRs. He struck me as a kind of "Checkdown Charlie" at times with his decision where to go with the ball. He has more running threat than Coker but he's not a dynamic playmaker as a runner though. His skills are good enough to force a defense to respect his ability to keep it but not enough to get teams worrying so much about it that it changes things for the tailbacks too much.


Basically, I think Coker is our best option unless he wilts terribly in SEC play...and I don't think it is improbable. He's seems to fall out of a rhythm and it effects his play for extended periods. He seems panicked in the no huddle at times and that kinda scares me because I don't want to see a panicked QB before the defense is even across the line coming for his head. Bateman, is a quality fallback if they guy who is best suited to get all the skill position talent involved flails. This season is all about the defense and run game anyway...but with Bateman, it will even be more so than I even initially thought.

 

[Jokrswylde]

I thought it was strange how the commentators for the sec network kept saying that this is the first season Coker had started since the 2010 5a state playoffs... Tough on anyone to come in after five years and lead a team at a high level.

I don't usually pay much mind to recruiting stars, but Coker's 3 stars out of hs seems about right.

 

[RammerJammer14]

Man, the sky is just constantly falling around here.

Coker looked fine against Wisconsin. I am willing to give him a mulligan for this past game. Blake Sims consistently played terribly at away games throughout last season, and was very hot-cold-hot, if yall don't remember. Luckily he always seemed to get hot with the game on the line and under 5min to play.

I was unable to watch the game this weekend, but trying to keep up with it on tide fans is probably one of the most stressful things I have ever done. You would have thought that WE were losing by 3 TDs. This back and forth on whether we should start the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th string QB is just as bad if not worse than the 2nd guessing of Blake last year. It's like people are pulling for Coker to mess up so they can say "I told you so". Coker will be the starter, and he will be fine as the season progresses. We may lose 2 or 3 games this season. But it won't solely rest on Coker's shoulders. I think we should give the kid some support instead of tearing him down every time he throws an incomplete pass. It was his second start since high school. Roll tide.


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[rgw]

Thats the problem with criticism. I'm just focusing in on his worst attributes - the things that can cost us games down the line - and not the good things.

He seems to get rattled and need rhythm to get going. I think that is on the other guys around him and the OC to call plays that he's confident in executing early.

His deep ball has been putrid thus far. Yes, Blake Sims was one of the best at it so that taints our realistic expectations but his deep balls - other than the near miss catch by Ridley in the Wisky game - have been no hope type throws. One time he hit the back of a defender who was burned by nearly 5 or 10 yards instead of the wide open receiver. He's thrown it into triple coverage like he thought his arm strength would scare the defenders away from the area. He might turn into a beautiful deep ball thrower but the early samples don't give you much to look forward to in that regard.

His strengths appear to be his ability to use arm strength to fit balls into windows short to medium. He can also hit quick outs to the wide side of the field more reliably than other QBs because that throw has to be red hot fast or it is a possible pick six for the defense. He's gonna have to improve on the deep ball a bit just to keep the defense from operating solely from 10 yards and in thus clogging up what should be a reliable run game.


The sky's not falling but those are just the facts about Coker by what he's shown.

 

[81usaf92]

Okay. 1st road game in a hostile environment. I only said we'd lose if the QB play doesn't get better.

Possibly, but what has Pruitt and UGA showed that makes you think they can stop Henry and drake. UGA's strength on offense is our strength on defense. Road games don't necessarily spell defeat.

I think we are looking too far into a passing scrimmage this past week, and overlooking the fact that we have played two decent to good teams while pretty much everyone else is playing scrubs. We will know who we are after this week so we don't need to press the panic button just yet

 

[81usaf92]

Man, the sky is just constantly falling around here.

Coker looked fine against Wisconsin. I am willing to give him a mulligan for this past game. Blake Sims consistently played terribly at away games throughout last season, and was very hot-cold-hot, if yall don't remember. Luckily he always seemed to get hot with the game on the line and under 5min to play.

I was unable to watch the game this weekend, but trying to keep up with it on tide fans is probably one of the most stressful things I have ever done. You would have thought that WE were losing by 3 TDs. This back and forth on whether we should start the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th string QB is just as bad if not worse than the 2nd guessing of Blake last year. It's like people are pulling for Coker to mess up so they can say "I told you so". Coker will be the starter, and he will be fine as the season progresses. We may lose 2 or 3 games this season. But it won't solely rest on Coker's shoulders. I think we should give the kid some support instead of tearing him down every time he throws an incomplete pass. It was his second start since high school. Roll tide.


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Like and agree 100x

 

[JustNeedMe81]

yeah, I remember some of folks were hard on Sims last year around this time of the year... We just need to show support for our team...

 

[markenk]

I'm completely sold on Coker. I've seen enough out of him to make me believe that he can lead us to the playoff this year against the tough SEC schedule. I think that we need to understand that our offensive problems this past weekend are the result of many variables rather than just from the QB position. For example, our RT (Jackson) was downright ridiculous when it was an obvious passing down, and our coaches did nothing to adjust our pass block scheme to help him out during the game.

I think that Coker is fine at dissecting the zone scheme and he has displayed the NFL quality touch on medium range throws. He needs to be a bit smarter with the football when there is nothing, be more diligent in clock management, and if he can sort out the deep throws I think we will be fine offensively.

 

[M2J]

I'm not trying to be hard on Coker. But there are some obvious deficiencies.

I think one large reason he looked so bad yesterday is because, YES that was a practice situation or scrimmage of sorts. They were clearly calling things (pretty vanilla things) to work on situations with our pass game. They were testing both QBs in certain situations, and they were certainly testing the OLine to see how they can handle their individual assignments. That's typically what you'll see in these types of games with teams like us that push for perfection and choose to be well balanced on offense.

I don't look back at this previous game as a red flag for our team, because I think or hope we're going to be run heavy when we need to (though I have issues with Kiffin in regards to his willingness to force the issue with the run, hopefully Saban will continue to ride him) such as against a team like Ole Miss.

After yesterday's performance and the HUGE game(s) coming up, this will be a big week in practice. It will be so interesting to see how Jake responds, and also our coaching staff.

 

[BamaGunner]

I'm completely sold on Coker. I've seen enough out of him to make me believe that he can lead us to the playoff this year against the tough SEC schedule. I think that we need to understand that our offensive problems this past weekend are the result of many variables rather than just from the QB position. For example, our RT (Jackson) was downright ridiculous when it was an obvious passing down, and our coaches did nothing to adjust our pass block scheme to help him out during the game.

I think that Coker is fine at dissecting the zone scheme and he has displayed the NFL quality touch on medium range throws. He needs to be a bit smarter with the football when there is nothing, be more diligent in clock management, and if he can sort out the deep throws I think we will be fine offensively.

I agree. Coker will be fine. He wouldnt be there if CNS didnt believe in him.

 

[KrAzY3]

His deep ball has been putrid thus far. Yes, Blake Sims was one of the best at it so that taints our realistic expectations

Heh, I just want to chuckle each time I see someone say that now. For... like years it was generally accepted "fact" That Blake Sims could not throw the deep ball. I remember the arguments, and honestly had I not seen him play QB in his very first A-Day I might have been part of that crowd.

I think there's a lesson in there somewhere for us when we try to evaluate the quarterbacks (other positions as well). For all we think we know, there has to be more that the coaches do know. We know a guy struggles in a game, they know what he's been doing in practice for years. The lesson here is for better or worse, they are far more educated than us.

When we (not necessarily addressing you) say oh why doesn't he just put in so and so, or so and so could do a better job... well sometimes we just don't know what we're talking about. What we know about the quarterbacks and what they know about the quarterbacks is so very different.

 

[GrayTide]

The quick out with WRs blockers that worked so well with Blake and Amari last year is a pick 6 waiting to happen this year. Also the crossing routes are killing us, our LBs cannot cover the slot receivers and of course with man to man coverage the old reliable pick play is there for the taking.

 

[92tide]

The quick out with WRs blockers that worked so well with Blake and Amari last year is a pick 6 waiting to happen this year. Also the crossing routes are killing us, our LBs cannot cover the slot receivers and of course with man to man coverage the old reliable pick play is there for the taking.

iirc, our first td to foster saturday was out of that play