Nick Saban adds clarity to QB competition, shares what’s most important for starter
By Keith Farner
Published:
Nick Saban went on Sirius XM College to discuss the ongoing quarterback competition at Alabama, and he offered some clarity on how he would manage it during fall camp.
Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson and Tyler Buchner are competing to be the starter and Saban explained how practices would be handled.
“We’ve been working through that all summer, actually. We usually take 2 guys, put 2 other guys together and rotate them, you know, every 2 workouts,” Saban said. “We’ll probably have to continue to do that for a while until somebody sort of separates themselves. It’s up to the players to do that. We’re coaching them every day, we’re trying to help them in any way we can.”
On Wednesday in Nashville at SEC Media Days, Saban used an analogy of baking a cake, and how it’s important to let the cake bake. All of the QBs are competing well, and have good attitudes, he said. But there isn’t a timetable set because it’s up to the players to separate themselves.
“I think this is one of the things that gets sort of out of whack at the quarterback position — making good choices and decisions, getting the ball to the right place at the right time, accurately, is the most important thing about playing quarterback,” Saban said. “And some guys think they have to make plays. So sometimes they abort the system to make a play and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. But those negative plays when you do that usually kill you. That’s what you have to sort of, guard against — avoid — because they can lose games for you.”
H/T Mike Rodak.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
