Former Alabama quarterback Phillip Sims.entered the 2011 football season in an open competition for the starting quarterback job at Alabama, and ended the season firmly entrenched as the backup to A.J. McCarron, who had just been named the Offensive MVP of the BCS National Championship Game.
Now that Sims has decided to transfer to another school, his high school coach says he believes Sims was a better quarterback than McCarron but lost the competition for the starting job because he wasn't from the state of Alabama.
"If it's a close competition between an in-state guy and an out-of-state guy, the in-state guy is getting the job," said Oscar Smith (Virginia) High School head coach Richard Morgan in an
. "Phillip was in a situation where I thought he was the better quarterback, but he was the out-of-state guy. That's just the way it works in college."
Sims, who was a four-star prospect coming out of high school, played in eight games for Alabama and completed 64 percent of his passes for 163 yards with two interceptions, but didn't play in the Tide's final five games of the 2011 season.
Morgan explained that Sims' decision to transfer comes at the right time for the Virginia native and is based on the availability of playing time.
"McCarron still has two years of eligibility," Morgan said. "If it was the case where (McCarron) was a senior and Phillip had to sit one more year and then have two years, he wouldn't leave. Let's face it, they did win the national championship. So you're not going to bench the quarterback who won the national title. And (Sims) doesn't want to sit because he feels he's just as good. So he has to go somewhere where he can play."
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