Debate: Who wins QB jobs for SEC contenders in 2016?
The SEC opened spring practice with 10 quarterback competitions, some races more open than others.
Experience matters, and Arkansas’ Austin Allen and Kentucky’s Drew Barker, for instance, seemed like heavy favorites, and each has been named the starter. Drew Lock seem like a lock at Missouri. Brandon McIlwain has made the most of his opportunity at South Carolina.
Among contenders with competitions, four stand out: Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Georgia.
Question: Who is your opening day starter for the Tide, Tigers, Gators and Bulldogs?
Alabama: I expect to see Cooper Bateman start game one for the Crimson Tide, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll finish the season. Blake Barnett will get his fair shake, along with freshman Jalen Hurts, who may have an important role this year.
Auburn: The Tigers will likely start John Franklin III, because we know who Jeremy Johnson is and who he isn’t.
Florida: The Gators will roll with Luke Del Rio as their opening day starter. There are several questions at the position for all four teams this season.
Georgia: The Bulldogs will finish the season with Jacob Eason at quarterback, but Greyson Lambert will take the first snap of the season.
— SDS co-founder Jon Cooper (@JonCooperMedia)
Alabama: Cooper Bateman. Jalen Hurts is intriguing and may get a couple of packages installed specifically for him. Blake Barnett may have the most talent, but looks like he’s pressing a bit and doesn’t seem in command of the team. I think Barnett still could overtake Bateman in the fall or at some point during the season, but for now I’d guess Bateman starts against USC.
Auburn: Sean White. I’m going wild card here. I think he’s a better passer than Jeremy Johnson, and other than a dropped interception by the defense I thought he definitively played the best in the spring game.
I suspect Auburn hopes John Franklin III becomes the starter. Certainly as a running threat he fits the success the team had with Nick Marshall. But Marshall threw a very good deep ball, an underrated part of his success throwing to guys like Sammie Coates and Duke Williams. Thus far I haven’t seen anything from Franklin that suggests he can do that, but White threw a few very pretty passes down the field.
In the spring game, Jeremy Johnson to me looked like the same guy we saw all last year.
Florida: Luke Del Rio. The Gators may be able to redshirt Kyle Trask and Feleipe Franks this year and have them duke it out next spring and fall. But Del Rio looks competent, and that’s all that Florida needs in the interim.
Georgia: Greyson Lambert. Two things here. Kirby Smart and Jim Chaney seem to fit the same conservative template that tends to prefer proven commodities who take care of the ball (read: upperclassman game manager). Second, withholding Jacob Eason allows the coaching staff a feel-good card to play in case of a couple of early losses, one that would allow Smart to prolong the honeymoon period at Georgia.
That said, Eason proved he’s the most dynamic option in the spring game. If he can learn the offense and convince the coaches he’s not any more of a risk, it won’t be shocking to see him start from Day One.
— Editor-in-Chief Christopher Smith (@csmithSDS)
Alabama: It’ll be Cooper Bateman. If the season started today, there’s no question it would be Bateman, and Nick Saban told ESPN that last week. The junior is the most experienced of the bunch, and he got the most reps with the starters in the spring.
Auburn: It’s a tough call, but I think it’ll be Jeremy Johnson for the season opener at least. The Tigers have a tough game against Clemson, and Gus Malzahn will value experience on the field for that contest. However, I think Johnson will be on a short leash.
Florida: It’s going to be Luke Del Rio. He has a good handle of the offense, never looking rattled on the field as he guided Florida on four TD drives in the spring game. Fellow transfer Austin Appleby has the size (6-foot-4, 235 pounds) and mobility, but Del Rio’s familiarity with the offense gives him a big edge.
Georgia: It has to be Jacob Eason. He’s clearly the most talented QB on the roster, and he helped himself by going 19-for-29 with 244 yards and a touchdown in the spring game. Not only is sheer talent on his side, but so are the Athens faithful, who went nuts when he took the field for the first time in the second quarter. Kirby Smart implored the fans to come out for the game, and they did while setting an SEC record for spring game attendance, but they would’ve shown up for Eason regardless.
— News editor Talal Elmasry (@TalalElmasrySDS)
Alabama: I believe we’ll see Cooper Bateman get the first crack at the Alabama job. With USC on the schedule for Week 1, Nick Saban will lean on the guy he trusts most to manage the game. I think that’s Bateman for now.
Auburn: I think we’ll see John Franklin III. Gus Malzahn can’t afford to run Sean White or Jeremy Johnson out there and see the same results from last season. He’ll try to recapture some of that offensive magic with a guy that can run a little (or a lot).
Florida: Luke Del Rio looks like the guy in the lead for the Florida job. My prediction is that carries over into the fall, and that Jim McElwain actually feels better about his quarterbacks by the time Week 1 rolls around in 2016 than he did with Will Grier and Treon Harris in 2015.
Georgia: I think the QB decision really sets the tone for the early outlook of the Kirby Smart era. Starting Greyson Lambert is probably the safe choice, but it won’t be a popular one. If Smart decides to go with freshman Jacob Eason instead, be warned. It may be a signal he’s willing to take his lumps at the position in 2016 in hopes it pays off in 2017 and beyond.
— News writer Nick Cole (@NickColeSports)
Alabama: Alabama’s defense can make any quarterback look bad — and that’s without hitting them. Still, for all of the hype we’ve heard about Blake Barnett, he didn’t look anything close to ready. Saban isn’t daring enough to go to Jalen Hurts, but he’s the most explosive in the bunch. By default, it will be Cooper Bateman.
Auburn: Opening day? Auburn’s only chance to beat Clemson is to out-Clemson Clemson with athletes, and John Franklin III is the closest thing to Deshaun Watson that Auburn has. He’ll bring excitement and buzz — at least until his first 3rd-and-8 pass sails high, wide or short, which it will. As a passer, he looked much closer to Treon Harris than Chad Kelly, but Auburn will be best served trying to lead the league in rushing and rushing attempts — by a wide margin.
I still think Jeremy Johnson is the full-time starter because he can complete a pass, stretch the field and make the defense honor him in the zone read game. Franklin and Sean White can only do parts of those three.
Florida: Strangely, I was more familiar with Austin Appleby’s arm than Luke Del Rio’s, but I’ll trust the beat writers and head coach who sang Del Rio’s praises.
Georgia: I wrote earlier in the week that if Nick Chubb isn’t healthy and Georgia wasn’t an SEC East contender, going to Jacob Eason on opening day is the obvious choice. But Chubb appears quite healthy, which makes Georgia a legitimate threat.
So the question for Kirby Smart becomes: Do you risk what is likely the only season you’ll get from Chubb and Sony Michel — two juniors likely going to the NFL — by putting the season in the hands of a true freshman quarterback?
I don’t — until you no longer have a chance to win the division. Georgia won’t have to wait long for that answer. They open with UNC, which won the ACC Coastal last year and pushed Clemson in the ACC title game. A few weeks later, they face Ole Miss and Tennessee in back to back weeks.
If you lose the opener with Greyson Lambert handing off to Chubb and Michel, then it’s not working, pull the plug. If you’re 3-0 using the same formula, then lose at Ole Miss and have Tennessee visiting, perhaps you pull the plug. Eason figures to play plenty in Week 2 against Nicholls State, anyway.
It’s not a matter of who throws the best pass. That’s obviously Eason. It’s everything else. Quarterbacks typically don’t improve because their arm gets stronger or more accurate. They improve because they aren’t as overwhelmed. They are able to process more information, quicker, better. They’ve seen exotic zones and dummy coverages. They’ve learned tendencies. They’ve learned how to read coverages, which is much simpler on Gruden’s white board than it is on any Saturday.
Eason has no idea about any of that, and how could he?
You’ll often hear announcers talk about the game slowing down for veterans. That’s not really accurate. The speed remains unchanged, but all of that accumulated experience allows them to think, process, play faster, which levels the field. And in the case of an elite, veteran quarterback, it tilts it in his favor.
It’s a process, almost always a long and bumpy one. Eason will get there. But he’s not there yet.
— Senior editor Chris Wright (@FilmRoomEditor)