Alabama did not land a quarterback in its 2018 signing class this month, marking a first in the Nick Saban era.
Yet the Crimson Tide coach hardly closed the door on the topic.
"We'll probably have a quarterback join us in some kind of way," Saban said Feb. 7.
That quarterback could be Gardner Minshew, who played in 17 games the past two seasons for East Carolina after guiding Northwest Mississippi Community College to the 2015 NJCAA championship. AL.com reported Wednesday that the 6-foot-2, 220-pounder from Brandon, Miss., could visit Tuscaloosa as early as this weekend.
Minshew, who would be a graduate transfer, played in 10 games last season for the Pirates, completing 174 of 304 passes (57.2 percent) for 2,140 yards with 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions. East Carolina struggled to a 3-9 record, but that was mostly the result of a defense that yielded more than 50 points on six occasions.
Alabama is expected to have a publicized quarterback competition this spring between junior Jalen Hurts, who was the Southeastern Conference offensive player of the year as a freshman in 2016 and is 26-2 as the Tide's starter, and sophomore Tua Tagovailoa, who replaced Hurts at halftime of last month's national championship game and rallied the Tide from a 13-0 deficit to a 26-23 overtime win versus Georgia.
Mac Jones, who redshirted last season as a freshman, is expected to compete, too, but the Tide could use some insurance should either Hurts or Tagovailoa get saddled on the second team after spring practice and elect to look for more playing time at another program. Alabama went through spring practice in 2016 with four scholarship quarterbacks - Cooper Bateman, Blake Barnett, David Cornwell and Hurts - but only Hurts was around from that quartet last spring.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.