Jake Coker Injury Could Open Door for David Cornwell

Earlier this week, panic raced through the entire campus of the University of Alabama when one of its top contenders for quarterback and the primary backup from last season went missing during morning practice.

Jake Coker a senior and former signal caller for Florida State and the presumed No. 1 contender to start at quarterback for the defending champs of the SEC, was not present for the open portion of the Crimson Tide’s practice on Monday.

Come to find out, Coker’s absence was excused. He suffered a minor injury to his foot that will likely keep him sidelined a number of days, said Nick Saban the Alabama head coach. Saban added that the team’s physicians expected a full recovery by Coker.

The positive news from this is that it appears Coker’s injury is not that serious, but missing a number of days, this close to the season opener could dramatically change the quarterback landscape for the Crimson Tide.

Coker, Alec Morris, Cooper Bateman and David Cornwell along with Blake Barnett are all trying to earn the top quarterback spot on the team’s depth chart.

It appears the battle remains wide open and even more so with Coker going down.

Alabama has its first full scrimmage Saturday and it appeared as if Coker was likely the No. 1 with Cornwell a very close second on the team’s depth chart. With Coker down that could give the edge to Cornwell the redshirt freshman who was taking snaps with the second team in the early portions of fall camp.

The absence of Coker will be a huge benefit to Cornwell, while others such as Barnett the true freshman has been quite the buzz. Cornwell however, has the talent and time at No. 1 while Coker mends his foot that could give him the first time job when the season starts later this month.

Cornwell is 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds and was a 4-star prospect when he arrived at Alabama. He suffered a torn ACL his senior year of high school and last spring an ankle injured kept him from showing his talent to the coaches.

He now will have the time to show the coaching staff and his fellow teammates how much he has improved and to impress them enough to give him the No. 1 job even when Coker’s foot is healed.

He will get that chance on Saturday where he will face the No. 1 defense and one of the best in the nation. It was last year in the team’s second scrimmage, that Sims won the job as the starting Alabama QB and Cornwell could do that this weekend.