Bama QB Battle Still Up for Debate

It's now less than two weeks before the start of the college football season, and for the second time in three years, Alabama has yet to name its starting quarterback.

Many assumed Florida State transfer Jacob Coker would stroll into Tuscaloosa and take the starting job from back-up Blake Sims. However, Nick Saban doesn't recruit wallflowers. Sims is wearing Tide colors for a reason. And that's why the battle is close.

Sims might actually have a slight advantage because he's been in the system a bit longer than Coker. As McCarron's back-up, it may not have been his job to out-Oregon Oregon, speedwise, but he didn't get many complaints for what he did do:

Saban has been tight-lipped about quarterback stats  from the Tide's scrimmages and got sorta torqued with the media last week when they kept pounding away about the quarterback battle. But that's not really unusual; Saban hates the media anyway.

Coyly enough, one signal caller getting the most praise from Saban these days is the front-runner for No 3, versatile redshirt sophomore Alec Morris.

In the meantime, it looks like another QB tandem will be in the works when Alabama squares off against West Virginia -- with Florida State QB émigrées -- in the Georgia Dome on Sat 30 Aug. Again, Tide fans have seen this before and know it could go a few games into the season before being resolved.

Things worked out rather nicely in 2011. Saban and his staff will no doubt be satisfied if history repeats itself in 2014.