Moments after Alabama pulled away for a 29-13 win at Auburn last month, Crimson Tide senior quarterback Jake Coker was noticeably more emotional compared to other victories.
“This game means a lot to me,” Coker said amid a swarm of reporters. “I wanted to make sure I put everything I had into it and did everything I could to help this team win.”
Coker had dreamed of winning an Iron Bowl since childhood, but those goals were all but dashed in 2011, when the three-star prospect from Mobile was passed over by his school of choice and signed instead with Florida State. He got a second chance when he transferred to Tuscaloosa after graduating from FSU in the spring of 2014, but he was beaten out by Blake Sims last year and was replaced as the starter before the third game this season against Ole Miss.
His opportunity to defeat Auburn was sealed by his play off the bench in the Tide’s 43-37 loss to the Rebels on Sept. 19, which remains Alabama’s only setback in a 12-1 season that includes a second straight Southeastern Conference championship and a second straight trip to college football’s four-team playoff.
“When he went in the Ole Miss game for the first time coming off the bench, the guy competed and ran the ball and made some great throws,” Tide coach Nick Saban said this past week in a news conference. “I think he won the team over with the way he competed in that game, and I think that was probably the most significant thing that happened for Jake. Rather than worrying about what he was supposed to do and trying to be perfect, he just went out and played for the first time.”
Coker followed AJ McCarron as the quarterback at St. Paul’s Episcopal School and was hoping to succeed McCarron at Alabama, but Sims clinched the starting job early last season and went on to throw for 3,487 yards with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
There were five quarterbacks who vied to replace Sims this spring and in preseason camp, but Coker and redshirt sophomore Cooper Bateman were the finalists as Alabama prepared for its season opener against Wisconsin. Coker got the nod and completed 30 of 47 passes for 427 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in wins over the Badgers and Middle Tennessee, but Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin opted to start Bateman against Ole Miss.
Bateman offered more dual-threat potential, but Ole Miss jumped out to a 17-3 lead midway through the second quarter against the mistake-prone Tide and Coker was called on to direct the comeback. Coker threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score but also threw two interceptions as the Tide came up short.
“I think he gained a lot of confidence,” Saban said, “and I think we gained a lot of confidence and the players gained a lot of confidence. Since that time, there has been no doubt who the leader of the offensive team is.”
If there were any doubts about Coker taking the reins after the Ole Miss game, he erased them two weeks later at Georgia. In a matchup of transfer quarterbacks from the ACC, Coker outperformed Greyson Lambert by completing 11 of 16 passes for 190 yards and a touchdown in Alabama’s 38-10 cakewalk inside a soggy Sanford Stadium.
Coker spent most of this season as a complement to Derrick Henry’s SEC-record 1,986 rushing yards, but Tide players are quick to echo Saban’s sentiments.
“Jake is the leader of our offense,” senior linebacker Reggie Ragland said.
The 6-foot-5, 232-pound Coker has completed 222 of 338 passes (65.7 percent) for 2,489 yards with 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He has the worst touchdown-to-interception ratio of any Alabama quarterback since John Parker Wilson in 2008, but that’s hardly relevant at this point.
Coker has a chance now to do something that Sims couldn’t – advance Alabama to its first title-game appearance in the playoff. TheTide continued preparations for their Cotton Bowl date with Michigan State with a two-hour workout Saturday afternoon in helmets and shorts.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Coker told reporters last week, “but at the same time, we’ve got to treat it the same as any other game. It’s kind of like the first game of the year, and you’ve had all that time off and you’ve got to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
Which Coker seems to have accomplished since coming off the bench against Ole Miss.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.