Talk centered around quarterbacks following Alabama's first scrimmage
Quarterbacks, quarterbacks, quarterbacks. They held court as the topic of conversation on message boards Saturday afternoon during the University of Alabama football team’s first scrimmage.
They were also the subject of three of the seven questions UA head coach Nick Saban was asked following the scrimmage. How did he divide the repetitions among the quarterbacks? How has the true freshman Jalen Hurts developed during his eight months on campus? Did the quarterbacks make good decisions?
As to be expected, Saban wasn’t satisfied with where the quarterbacks are just nine days into fall camp, but if he were what would that say about his expectations? Likewise he wasn’t displeased either, praising all three quarterbacks who participated — Cooper Bateman, Blake Barnett and Jalen Hurts (David Cornwell was limited with an injury) — for their decision making.
Saban said all three quarterbacks got an “equal opportunity” to move the offense with each group (first team, second team, etc.). How each fared gave the coaching staff information they’ll use to help narrow the starting quarterback competition the longer it goes.
“I think it sort of gave us a good idea who might be most ready to manage the team, but I think that decision is far from getting made,” Saban said. “Just my feeling, based on watching the scrimmage today on the field. But, you know, I’ll watch the film and sort of see, get a better feeling for how many balls got dropped and did they throw it in the right place all the time. How did they execute? What was their decision-making? How did they manage the team? What was their leadership like? How did the team function when they were in there?
“I think when we watch the film we’ll get a little better feel for that.”
Normally quarterbacks statistics are withheld following scrimmages but Saturday no statistics from the scrimmage were released by UA media relations.
The team got through the day relatively unscathed except for a few minor injuries, including sophomore running back Bo Scarbrough, who got a “little dinged up,” and Dalvin Tomlinson, who sustained an ankle sprain. Junior defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand was held out of the scrimmage but Saban indicated he could be back at practice by Monday.
Asked specifically about true freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts, Saban said said he did “some really good things out there today.”
“I think he does really good things each and every day,” Saban said. “I think the key for both younger guys is consistency in performance, taking care of the ball and taking what the defense gives and being satisfied with that.
“I think that all three guys have done a good job of not looking over their shoulder in terms of what the other guy is doing and trying to focus on what they need to do to improve and get better. So, we’re encouraged by the progress. We’re not satisfied with where we are but we are certainly hopeful that we can get all three of these guys really to play well enough to play for us to give us the best chance to win.”
The team returns to the field Monday for a two-a-day practice.
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.