BOL Round Table

I wish him the best of luck and hope he does well.

Alabama has just issued a statement, which will be added to the story:

The University of Alabama announced Friday that redshirt sophomore quarterback Phillip Sims has decided to transfer following the completion of the spring academic semester.

“This was a very difficult decision because I’ve had a great experience at the University of Alabama and I’m thankful for the opportunity this program provided me,” said Sims. “I want to thank Coach Saban and the coaching staff for being with me and my family at this time. I wouldn’t change anything about my decision to come to Alabama and this has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. The reason for me leaving is nothing more than a personal matter. I just need to be closer to home to support my family at this time and that needs to be my priority right now. I would still like to continue my football career, and hopefully I can do that and also be there for my family.”

Sims, from Chesapeake, Va., played in eight games last season, completing 64.3 percent of his passes for 163 yards. He redshirted in his first year at Alabama in the fall of 2010.

“Phillip has been a great representative of our program and did a great job for us in his two years here,” said head coach Nick Saban. “We are sorry to see him leave, but we certainly understand the situation, and everyone here wishes him the best of luck. We’ve talked on numerous occasions about this decision and we just want Phillip to know that we will be here to support him in the future if there is anything we can do to help him and his family.”

We need 2 qbs in this class. I hope they see the open door for playing time at a top university.

well his statement is all class, not surprisingly.

A great kid. Wish we could keep him, but I can't say I blame him...

I hope it is for the right reasons...I don't like quitters so I hope it is family related or a similar issue. Classy statement and he is completing his schoolwork which is important to any young man.

That sucks. I sure wish he'd have been a year younger & were only a redshirt freshman this year instead of a redshirt sophomore.

Best of luck to him though, I can certainly understand why the decision is being made, considering he'll have to sit out for a year now anyway. On the bright side, this should allow us to move Blake Sims back to QB now, as his potential at RB was severely limited, as was his potential at QB, while Phillip was getting more & more comfortable. Now that AJ's found his comfort level & won't be as easily knocked out of rhythm, I'd love to see Blake move into the backup role & gain some serious experience by being used in some wildcat packages. He looked awesome in that role last spring.

Am I the only one concerned about the backup qb spot?? Not saying phillip was loaded with experiance but he had some.. Now we go with 2 un-proven guys in Ely and a qb/rb/qb again player in blake simms.

How bout some B. Sims in wildcat and situational packages ( short yardage )