Quarterback Jacob Coker hasn't logged a single college start, but the former FSU signal-caller is already drawing an NFL draft endorsement from Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher. Coker barely lost out to Jameis Winston for the starting quarterback job at FSU last year, and after Winston won the Heisman Trophy as a redshirt freshman, Coker transferred to Alabama.
"Jacob Coker is an outstanding young man, first and foremost," Fisher said Wednesday during an interview with Mobile, Ala., radio station WNSP-FM. "He's a tremendous human being. As an athlete, he is a tremendous player. I think he is going to be a very high draft pick in the NFL. He has that type of potential."
Coker certainly has the size at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds. Experience is where he's lacking, but Fisher isn't the only coach heaping immense praise on the junior-to-be. In January, FSU coach Randy Sanders said Coker's arm is "probably the best I've seen in 25 years." Former FSU defensive back Lamarcus Joyner, a second-round pick of the St. Louis Rams, said FSU had two NFL quarterbacks in Winston and Coker.
No wonder Alabama fans have largely assumed Coker will win the starting job this fall over Blake Sims and Cooper Bateman, who both struggled in the Crimson Tide's annual spring game. Coincidentally, Coker would be taking over for the same quarterback he backed up in high school: AJ McCarron. Coker and McCarron were teammates at Mobile's St. Paul Episcopal High.
Fisher's NFL projection on Coker comes just after Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury suggested Red Raiders quarterback Davis Webb could be a top-five NFL draft pick.
Hey, it's May. Football hopes are at their highest.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
