Alabama Crimson Tide

From now until kickoff in Arlington, Texas, we'll be counting down the days before Alabama and Michigan get the season started. Today, we move to No. 35 and what it means to UA football. See all the previous editions here.

At the quarterback position, you're judged on one statistic. It's not touchdowns, interceptions or yards thrown. It's not completion percentage or the calculated quarterback efficiency. At the end of the day, a quarterback is judged on wins and losses.

That's why Jay Barker must be included in the discussion of the best quarterbacks to ever play at the University of Alabama. The three-year starter in the early 90s won a school-record 35 games in his career. He lost two games over that time and finished with one tie. For those keeping score, that's a 93.4 winning percentage.

Like AJ McCarron, Barker led the Crimson Tide to a national championship in 1992 in his first year starting at quarterback. The Tide went 13-0 that year and beat the Miami Hurricanes in the Sugar Bowl to finish No. 1 overall. Two years later, in 1994, Barker would lead Alabama back to the SEC Championship game. He earned All-American honors that season, throwing for just under 2,000 yards while completing 61 percent of his passes.

Here's how Barker stacks up against the rest of the quarterbacks in Alabama history:

Career attempts
1. John Parker Wilson: 1,175
2. Brodie Croyle: 869
3. Andrew Zow: 852
4. Jay Barker: 706
5. Freddie Kitchens: 680

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Spring is a time for renewal. In college football, spring is also the time to look ahead to fall and the upcoming season. Saturday, Alabama holds its annual Golden Flake A-Day Game (ESPN3, 3 ET), which will give its fans a first look at the defending national champions.

Alabama captured its record-breaking ninth national championship of the major poll era in January. Once again, the Crimson Tide are expected to be one of the best teams in the country in 2012. But the Tide have been here before. Will history repeat?

In 2010, Alabama was preseason No. 1 in both The Associated Press and Coaches polls with 11 combined offensive and defensive starters returning from the team that had won the 2009 national title. The problem was the retention breakdown. Bama lost eight starters from a defense that allowed the second-fewest yards (244.1) and points (11.7) per game in the bowl subdivision. With QB Greg McElroy, the RB tandem of Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson and WR Julio Jones, the belief was that the Tide would score points and win games through their offense while buying enough time for their defense to jell.

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