Skip to content

Tide’s latest QB commit suggests Bama offense is changing

  • by

Think you have Alabama’s offense figured out? Think again.

Yesterday Alabama received a commitment from one of the top three dual threat quarterbacks in the country, Blake Barnett of Corona Santiago, California. Barnett, like the incoming transfer Jacob Coker, presents a different skill-set from other quarterbacks in Nick Saban’s arsenal while at Alabama.

“He brings another dimension with his feet,” Santiago high school’s head coach Jeff Steinberg said in a recent interview with TiderInsider.com. “I think in Alabama’s offense what he’ll be able to do is extend plays with his feet. Let’s be honest, it’s the SEC. It’s the best of the best. So when the pocket breaks down, he’s going to be able to extend plays and buy time to make throws.”

Barnett had originally committed to Notre Dame, then backed off in wanting to re-evaluate where he might be the best fit. With his abilities and Oregon’s proximity and heavy interest, he was thought to be a Duck lock. But that all changed with a visit to Tuscaloosa.

New Tide commitment Blake Barnett shown with his mom and the greatest coach of our time.
New Tide commitment Blake Barnett shown with his mom and the greatest coach of our time.
“His parents were sold,” Steinberg says. “They planned to visit Alabama for a day or so and then go visit LSU and Georgia. Then they were coming back home and taking a visit to Oregon this week and then making a decision next week. But they canceled the visits to LSU and Georgia while they were at Alabama. Then they decided not to visit Oregon. They just felt like there was really no need to take the visits. It was nothing against those schools. It was more about Alabama and what they showed them. Alabama offered everything that Blake was looking for.”

Jacob Coker has already received gleaming reviews from former coaches and analysts praising his abilities both through the air and his feet. If he secures the starting job this fall, which most believe he will…or already has…his presence will present an immediate departure from the traditional pro-style quarterback Bama’s opponents have had to defend in the Saban era.

Coker will have two years of eligibility when he suits up this season. Barnett will be a 2015 signee, poised to take over if Cooper Bateman can’t wrestle the job away from him. Either option would be a good one.

The addition of Lane Kiffin to the Tide staff last January and the evolution of the type of quarterback Bama is recruiting suggests the Tide’s pro-style offense may be undergoing more than just a facelift. While it’s doubtful Alabama’s new offense will stoop to bush-league tactics like the HUNH, football’s version of the cheap shot punch (then run away as fast as you can), it appears Bama is intent on standing in front of you, punching you in the mouth, then kicking you with very, very quick feet.


(Follow ITK on Twitter for Bama news, commentary and smack.)

28 thoughts on “Tide’s latest QB commit suggests Bama offense is changing”

  1. So Alabama is changing its offense for a quarterback that has not even signed yet? LMAO

    Lane Kiffin is well known for coaching dual threat quaterbacks, right? LMAO

    Does Alabama only recruit white dual threat quarterbacks? LMAO

    Based on that picture are you sure Saban was recruiting the player and not the mother?! LMAO

      1. Go easy on him Paul. Last year’s flash in the pan season made him woozy and stupid. Should have another in 10 yrs or so.

          1. Now you’re just embarrassing yourself. You really should get off the interwebs and bathe at some point.

            What do you weigh anyway? 120?

          2. Why are you talking about me bathing and wanting to know how much I weigh?? Are you picturing me naked in your perverted gump mind? I know you gumps are well known for teabagging other men.

            1. Because we both know away from your keyboard you’re a loser. Someone over invested in Internet banter because it’s all you have. Someone devoid of a real purpose…or friends…because your sticky keyboard is the extent of your existence. A joke to the opposite sex, aside from those you pleasure yourself to online. You’re Billy Bad Ass here, but nothing when standing toe-to-toe with a real person.

              You’re a joke. But then again, your parents already have told that to countless times.

            2. ITK you’ve got to be the dumbest gump of them all.

              How many more years do you have in junior high?

              You’re insults are immature and childish and you are probably stupid enough to really believe they bother anybody. LMAO at you dumb ass!

              1. There’s nothing quite as precious as trying to say someone is “junior high” through a junior high-esque retort of your own. I seriously wouldn’t be surprised by a “I know you are but what am I” from you in 3…2…1…

          3. They’ve worked out quite well if you ask me. A Heisman winner and one that will at least be in the conversation this year. How’s that convict Pettway working out?

            1. “In the conversation this year?”

              LOL

              Nick Marshall is a thug who can’t hit a receiver who isn’t running wide ass open.

              Try again.

              1. So ITK are you saying your defensive backs or your defensive coaches weren’t worth a shyt last year? Or both? Because if Nick Marshall can’t hit a receiver who isn’t running wide ass open, then 11 times in only 16 tries in last years game against bama he hit receivers who, I guess according to you, must have been running wide ass open against bama and Nick Saban’s defense!

                LMAO

                1. I don’t know what’s funnier, you not understanding the concept of defending a run-first offense, or you campaigning on here to try and make us believe you’re not a barner though you strangely know every Aubie stat and past happening chapter, line and verse.

                2. Oh I completely understand the concept of defending a run-first offense, but obviously you and the bama players and coaches don’t understand that concept! So I suggest you and Nick Saban go watch the film of the LSU beating Auburn last year so that you can see how it is done! LMAO

                  ITK I’m not campaigning to make you believe anything. If you are too stupid to determine which school I am a fan of or how to use google to look up stats then I suggest you get help from someone smarter than yourself, if you can find one in the gump nation. LMAO

          4. Doesn’t matter you Corndog piece of shit. I could QB Bama and whip the fucking Corndog’s asses.

            1. So true. Never have I seen a once good program like LSU get processed so fast.

              Three in a row over the corn dogs is about to be four. We’ll soon own a part of that wretched state.

        1. ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE THE GREATEST CFB PROGRAM IN WORLD HISTORY JUST GOT BETTER …LEAVING THE FLUKEY DUNGSTERS IN THE DUST

        2. Pingback: Tide’s Latest QB Commit Suggests Bama Offense Is Changing : BamaFootball4Life

        3. I dunno ITK. Maybe the critics are right?

          Maybe Auburn’s defense will make Alabama’s defense look like malnurished children with polio? After all, Saban lost a game.

          Oh no, wait, he lost two games.

          We’re doomed.

          And you know, it’s true; Lane Kiffin really hasn’t worked with dual-threat QB’s. That extra skill set can’t be good for Alabama. We might as well be recruiting snowboarders for their talent of balance.

          After all, why would Alabama change their offense? Why would Alabama change anything? Is Nick Saban really foolish enough to think adaptation and evolution are good ideas? It doesn’t sound like progression; it sounds like desperation and fear, typical of Alabama, right?

          Wrong.

          Sarcasm over.

          If you can’t read the writing on the wall, read the recruiting commits in the Summer. You won’t find a lot. It is the Summer, after all.

          But if you do look, you’ll probably notice a pattern; they’re committing to the University of Alabama left and right.

          And now a top-ranked QB…from the other side of the country, a place where football is still competitive and popular where the best teams in the regions are uniquely known for QB’s of his talent set? In the summer.

          Let that sink in.

          Call it excuses or desperation, if it helps. The truth is Alabama is changing, which they do every season, only now Alabama might be looking to speed up parts of its offense rather than slow it down?

          Think about what that might mean. No, Alabama’s not going to adapt a HUNHNS-style offense before the clock rules are changed again. However, they are a great football program, and now they’re evolving to adapt to the terror of a two-loss season?

          Why? Because they were so terrible last year? Missing a majority of field goals and fumbling after long drives certainly wasn’t characteristic of Alabama, even if it was ultimately deterministic, but they’re improving anyway?

          Auburn will be a good team this year, perhaps. They lost their star RB, but they keep their now-experienced QB and their best receiver. Can their defense improve? Frankly, they have no place to go but up.

          But we can see what Auburn’s doing. We know what they’re going to be. We know what their style of offense will be, we know their defense needs to improve and probably will, and we know a lot about their players.

          What do we know about Alabama? We don’t even know Alabama’s QB.

          We fear what we do not know. It’s human nature. Fear might make people try to use the same information to say Alabama won’t be good, particularly after such a terrible season last year.

          The reality is not knowing what Alabama will be is scary…unless you’re an Alabama fan. So ignore the recruiting commits. Pretend the changes at Alabama will all be detrimental. A QB without starting experience (Coker) can’t have success (insert Nick Marshall STFU bracelet pic here). Having more depth than the Pacific is irrelevant when your offensive coordinator is new, right?

          Alabama’s going to be a good team this year, not to mention the following seasons. That’s not a surprise. What may be a surprise to many, including Alabama, is just how elite they might be, above and beyond. It may be for the best Alabama didn’t win 3 titles in a row and four out of the last five, but even though we all saw it was possible, it’s hard not to imagine what the possibilities will be for the future. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is thinking Alabama’s changes spell certain doom for the Crimson Tide.

            1. @Gibson

              LMAO is convinced the United States of America is definitively anti-Semitic because the United States of America has never had a Jewish president. I don’t care about convincing anybody of how good Alabama can be, least of all LMAO.

              Then again, do I really need to convince anyone?

              Instead, what I’m trying to say is the “unknown” seems to be leading a lot of people towards negative speculation while the same people are simultaneously ignoring the known advantages at the Capstone like recruiting, positional depth, statistical talent, even personnel.

              For example, just to make it relative to you, I’m not sure what kind of convincing anyone would have required from Nick Marshall or Cam Newton before leaving their first-choice schools. Hindsight grants clarity that the unknown obscures.

              With that said, I don’t think it will be a surprise to people next February if Alabama ends up being a great team this upcoming season, but is it really that easy to consider they’ll be worse because of the unknown, rather than better? After all, even AJ McCarron ran for a few touchdowns, including against elite competition.

              But if you think it’s me trying to do the convincing, you’re welcome to take this opportunity to say why Alabama will decline even further this year and beyond. Last year any one of four missed field goals and any one of four fumbles could have changed the entire season; how much worse will they get and why?

              1. Can’tdoit it is a good thing you are not trying to convince anyone, because if you were you suck at it! LMAO

                I actually feel as dumb as a gump after reading your post, especially these couple of sentences of yours:

                “If you can’t read the writing on the wall, read the recruiting commits in the Summer. You won’t find a lot. It is the Summer, after all.”

                Say what?!? Then again you are known for hitting the bottle pretty hard.

                bama has had the number 1 recruiting class for what, the last five or six years in a row now? So how is this years class, many of which wont see the field for at least a couple of years based on your own words of bama “having more depth than the Pacific “, going to make a difference. What in three years? You better hope Saban will even still be there in three years because that is something you don’t know for certain even though you will try and claim you do. LMAO

                You say “people are simultaneously ignoring the known advantages at the Capstone like recruiting, positional depth, statistical talent, even personnel”. No they are not, bama had those advantages before the beginning of last year didn’t they? But they still didn’t win their division or conference or bowl game did they? LMAO

                And even though most gumps won’t, I am smart enough to understand what you were trying to imply with your made up statement in your first sentence of your last post. So I will just ask you this, how many Jewish candidates have there been for President of the United States compared to how many blacks quaterbacks have been on bama’s teams trying to become the first black starting quarterback for bama?

                Ball is in your court gump.

        4. ITK, there are too many people putting way too much assumption in this QB thingie. It’s funny how quickly people forget facts. Phillip Simms was the #1 Pro Style QB in the nation. Funny thing is Phillip Simms was not a Pro Style QB. His high school ran the spread option and he was rarely under center. AJ ran the spread option at St Paul. McElroy ran the spread option in Texas, as did Morris. So did Bateman and Cornwell. Way back when, a little Italian QB Nick Fanuzzi did too and when he transferred to Rice he broke all their records running the HUNH. So don’t go getting all up tempo on us until you actually see it happen.

          1. So let me see if I’ve got this right Crimsunut. You are saying just because this latest QB to commit to bama is rated as one of the top dual treat QB’s in the nation, that doesn’t really mean shit because the people who are giving him that rating don’t know what they are talking about? Like the stupid people who gave Phillip Simms the #1 Pro Style QB rating when, according to you the expert, he “was not a Pro Style QB”.

            And you are saying that it doesn’t really matter what kind of QB these kids were in high school and what kind of offense they ran, they will be forced to run Nick Saban’s pro style offense?

            And based on your comments you are saying you and ITK are non on the same page, and he doesn’t know what he is talking about when he makes statements like
            “…the evolution of the type of quarterback Bama is recruiting suggests the Tide’s pro-style offense may be undergoing more than just a facelift.”

            LMAO

            1. Simms was rated as both Pro Style and Dual Threat. But he was rated higer at Pro Style simply because he was goung to Alabama. He commited to Bama his sophomore year and never waivered. Since he was gking to play Pro Style, he was rated a Pro Style. I know, because I contributed to his recruitment. As for ITK, I’m just saying let’s wait and see. Kiffin runs the West Coast offense, not the spread. The rest of your bullshit is pretty close to right. Idiot!

              1. And I don’t recall saying anything about how Blake is rated or should be rated. Just more of your Corndog bullshit. Life must be a bitch being you, or any LSU fan. Bwaa Haww Haww!

        Comments are closed.

        Exit mobile version