Alabama's Quarterback Battle

Now that A-Day, Alabama's spring game, has come and gone we feel like we can better take a look at the ongoing quarterback battle in Tuscaloosa.  Of course, one spring scrimmage is not a standard to make a final judgement on, but you can perhaps get some hints as to which way things may fall.  


A.J. McCarron thew for 222 yards and one touchdown.  McCarron went 22 for 38 passing, he seemed to be  efficient and was finding Trent Richardson in the flats regularly. We didn't see much success form McCarron when it came to the deep ball however.   McCarron's last pass of the game he had a chance to find Kenny Bell in the endzone to win the game for the white team.  McCarron's throw went high and sailed over Bell and through the back of the endzone.  McCarron has good mechanics but seems to hold on to the ball a little bit to long.  During one of the last drives of the game McCarron took a sack that should have been easily avoided by throwing the ball out of bounds.  But McCarron hasn't been the main man at Alabama yet, and with time will come better choices.  McCarron also looks the part of an Alabama quarterback with his Brodie Croyle haircut and straight out of Hoover High smile.  


But maybe it's time to break that mold and make change at the quarterback position for Alabama.  Phillip Sims threw for 229 yards, one interception, and went 19 for 38 passing.  Making his stats almost identical to McCarron.  Sims also was also able to find his check down recivers in the flats with regularity.  Of course this is not a downside in the eye's of Nick Saban who repeated his "take what the defence gives you" mantra on Saturday.  Sim's fundamentals and footwork look slightly stronger than McCarron's even if there was no clear difference in game stats. Sim's however is guilty of trying to force throws, he had several that were nearly picked off due to him trying to force passes through small windows.  Sims seemed flustered and nervous in the first half, but that is to be expected for his first game in front of a crowd like the 92,000 that were present at A-Day.  In the second half you could tell that Sims had calmed down and was thinking more clearly.


Nick Saban had this to say about his dueling quarterbacks on Saturday: "I thought both the quarterbacks showed some promise in terms of making good decisions,” coach Nick Saban said. “Both of them got picked, which probably wasn’t a good thing, but all in all, I thought they did a good job managing the game. We didn’t have a lot of issues, and they both showed that they have some ability to play the position and play winning football at the position. We were pleased with that.” 


What impressed us was that Sims seemed to hang tough with McCarron, despite only being a red shirt freshman without any game-time.  Sims also seemed to have better footwork and fundamentals.  Sims freshman status may be a benefit to him as well.  If Sims is McCarron's equal as a freshman where will he be when he is a sophomore like McCarron will be this year? 


Either of these two quarterbacks could be the starter at most SEC schools this year.  We doubt this battle will be decided until Fall camp and maybe not until several weeks into the regular season.  I guess at this early juncture you could put us in camp Sims ... for now.  


Team Sims would crush team Edward.



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