TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Remember all the preseason hype surrounding Jacob Coker, the University of Alabama quarterback who many believed would win the starting job after transferring from Florida State?

Nick Saban hasn’t forgotten.

“It wasn’t really fair to Jake to be honest with you,” Saban said during the weekly SEC coaches’ teleconference with reporters on Wednesday morning. “A new guy in the program. Never been in the system. Had a lot on the uptake side to be able to grasp the offense, get what he needed to get, not having been in spring practice.”

Coker has appeared in five games this season while senior Blake Sims has started every game. Although Sims had been in the system for years and backed up A.J. McCarron in 2013, Coker was on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award (most outstanding player) and Unitas Golden Arm Award — both won by McCarron last season.

Sims wasn’t on any watch list until the Davey O’Brien Award named him a semifinalist on Tuesday.

“I think this was largely created by the media and fans who always hope for the unknown to be better,” Saban continued. “Jake’s a good player, and he’s going to be a fine player for us and he’s getting better all the time.

“It wasn’t fair to either one of our guys to make those kind of assumptions.”