Jay GreesonBlake Barnett, Alabama's backup quarterback, is leaving the program and lots of folks, even his former coach, are questioning his loyalty and are calling him a quitter.
Wow, embrace that double standard much?
Maybe Barnett wasn't good enough to play at Alabama, considering the quarterback recruited a year after him has taken his job. And remember, loyalty has to be a two-way street, and since every good program tries to recruit at least one quarterback every year, it's fair to ask if the schools are truly committed long-term to those recruits.
Now we get word that Barnett's timing on the transfer means he could enroll right away in a junior college, get 12 hours in each of the next two semesters and maintain a specific GPA and be eligible for next season with a FBS team while missing only the first four games of 2017.
That rules loophole - which I expect to be closed sooner rather than later, mind you - could be a game-changer. Looking at bylaw 14.5.6 of the transfer guide for NCAA student-athletes, Barnett qualifies as a 4-2-4 transfer (meaning he went from a four-year school to a two-year school back to a four-year school) and he would be eligible in a calendar year, not forfeiting all of next season.
And if we know anything, it's that powerful football coaches and Power Five schools hate to surrender power more than anything else.
Alabama coach Nick Saban, who already made headlines for trying to block Maurice Smith's transfer earlier this season to Georgia, is predictably less than pleased about Barnett's decision to leave the program. Of course, Saban is: His No. 1 goal is to win football games, and having a backup as talented as Barnett behooves him and his program.
But who can blame Barnett for trying to do what's best, in his eyes, for his situation and his family? (Even though he's just a redshirt freshman, Barnett already is engaged to a famous professional surfer who has endorsement deals from Under Armour. Maybe the couple is looking to relocate to the coast, even back toward Barnett's home state of California.)
But Saban's reaction Thursday night pointed to the dated double standard that is the fallback place in matters such as this.
Saban said Thursday night on his call-in show: "If I would've come home and told my dad I was going to quit the team, I think he would've kicked me out of the house."
OK, well, back in those days we smoked on airplanes, didn't know about car seats for kids and believed lead-based paint was awesome for its durability. That is a short-sighted angle that is really comparing apples to pineapples.
Rightly or wrongly, Saban's view of Barnett's transfer is as dated as black-and-white TVs and presidential candidates you could trust.
It's also hypocritical. Alabama's second-leading receiver is a graduate transfer. Did that kid leave that other team to come play for Bama for a better opportunity to win? Sure, he did. But under Saban's overarching, nostalgic and bitter one-liner, he still quit, and Saban Sr. would have kicked that kid - or any of the other transfers Saban has accepted, including quarterback Jake Coker, who helped Bama win the national title last year after leaving Florida State because he got beat out by a freshman a few years ago - out of the house, too.
Or on a more personal level, what about when Nick made career choices to leave Kent State for Michigan State, Michigan State for LSU, LSU for the NFL and the NFL for Alabama. All of those worked out and in today's professional parlance are completely understandable.
But under the "old school" mantra of telling dad he was quitting the team, well, that applies, too.
But that's the rub and part of the very hypocrisy that is college sports in today's age.
We want the players to love ol' State U as much as we do, but we'll boo them when we're down 21-3 at halftime. How many Alabama fans are upset Barnett is transferring but ripped him after consecutive three-and-outs? (And rest assured, Johnny Tide Fans, you certainly are not alone in that club.)
We want the players to stay committed for four-plus years through thick and thin, but we'll fire coaches before October and try to steal the next hot name from another school with sneaky jet trips and covert conversations involving third parties.
We want the players to accept the merits of a free education worth hundreds of thousands of dollars while coaches and administrators are getting millions, even after they are no longer coaching or administrating.
Now, this is not the "pay the players" rant. We undervalue the cost of an education in that sense. But the double standard that this rah-rah "Don't quit on the team" stuff is rubbish.
Coaches recruit over and around players every year. Every school at every level does it, and it's how the system works. But where's the loyalty in that, and in truth is that not a form of the coach quitting on the previous star-studded quarterback every bit as the quarterback leaving for a chance to play somewhere else?
Even if this is about nothing more than playing time, and Barnett, who started the season opener before being supplanted by freshman Jalen Hurts, who can blame him for trying to find the best opportunity to advance his situation?
If that's quitting, since Saban has changed a number of jobs, leaving a number of teams in the lurch each time, well, then Old Man Saban's going to have to kick a lot of people out of the house.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.