Sims has what it takes to be QB

Published 12:01 am Thursday, September 4, 2014

Oh, hello Blake Sims.

The Alabama senior quarterback was the star of the night in the second-ranked Crimson Tide’s 33-23 victory over West Virginia on Saturday in Atlanta.

Accounting for 292 yards of Alabama’s 538 for the game, Sims made his presence known by using his feet and athleticism to find open men down field or getting good gains to convert a third down conversion or two.

For the game, Sims rushed for 42 yards and went 24-of-33 for 250 yards in the air with no touchdowns.

Other than making good plays from his feet as he often did, I thought Sims did a good job distributing the ball to running backs, T.J. Yeldon and Derrick Henry; and wide receivers, Amari Cooper, DeAndrew White and Christion Jones.

Yeldon and Henry rushed for 132 and 113 yards, respectively; and Cooper and White combined for a 203-yard game in receptions.

As would any quarterback would experience in their first start of their career, Sims had some growing pains.

In the first half, it was evident that he didn’t get the play calls right in the huddle — which he improved on in the second half — and that there were a couple botched throws.

Many fans were thinking that coach Nick Saba was going to put in Jacob Coker, who battled with Sims for the starting quarterback position, but he didn’t. Saban stuck to his guns and he was right.

Coker later came into the game when it was clear Alabama would win.

I found it interesting that Sims stepped up his game when Coker started warming up on the sidelines.

Sims handled the adversity from the game well, and that should be commended.

This win will give the Crimson Tide an opportunity to iron out those kinks before they host Florida Atlantic at Bryant-Denny on Saturday.

Reports indicate that Coker will get some playing time this week.

It’ll also be good to see him play, too.

I know that FAU won’t provide much of a problem for Alabama so the sky is the limit for Sims and the rest of the squad to show their improvement.