SEC Network analyst Greg McElroy knows a thing or two about playing quarterback at Alabama.

So when McElroy was asked on the Paul Finebaum Show to break down the Alabama quarterback race, he had plenty to say.

“If I were to go in any direction, given the fact that they lost Ryan Kelly at center, I would lean towards Cooper Bateman,” McElroy said. “The reason being is because he has been in the offense the longest. He understands exactly what it is that Lane Kiffin’s trying to do. He was relatively effective, Paul, in the Ole Miss game a year ago. If you really look back at it, he was 11-of-14. Yeah, he made a poor decision that resulted in an interception on the right hand side; he should have thrown it left.

“You know what, in my first start, I probably would have made the exact same mistake,” McElroy said. “But 11-of-14 with two inaccurates and one bad decision, I can live with that start. I was 2-of-11 in my first start, so what if they would have pulled the plug on me? I’m surprised they didn’t, at 2-of-11.

“I will say this though: I think that he has an athletic ability that is similar to what Jalen Hurts brings too,” McElroy said. “Jalen Hurts is a really good athlete, can create a little bit. And I think Jalen Hurts and Cooper Bateman kind of fit into that mold that we saw from Blake Sims in 2014.”

McElroy then began to go into the other candidates in the race.

“David Cornwell’s a little bit like A.J. McCarron, a little bit like Jake Coker,” McElroy said. “Decent athlete, but he’s going to make his hay from the pocket. He’s going to throw it down the field. He can be accurate. It’s just whether or not he has improved enough since spring to challenge for the job. And I think he had a really good spring and it’s neck-and-neck at this point.

“And finally, the wild card is Blake Barnett,” McElroy said. “Obviously very highly touted coming out of high school. Very effective when he was running the scout team last year. They say he has an ‘IT’ factor. That means an awful lot, but that ‘IT’ factor hasn’t been on display on Saturdays against some of the best teams in the country.”

McElroy said the younger players probably wouldn’t win the job outright in fall camp.

“If it were to be one of the freshmen, either Hurts or Blake Barnett, I would imagine that decision being made after the first game of the season,” McElroy said. “If it’s going to be Cooper Bateman or David Cornwell because they’ve been on campus a little bit longer, I would assume they start and it’s their team from that point forward.”

Alabama Quarterback Candidates

(Rankings from the 247Sports Composite)

18 Cooper Bateman, 6-3 224, Junior — No. 4 pro-style QB, No. 80 overall (2013)

12 David Cornwell, 6-5 234, Sophomore — No. 4 pro-style QB, No. 79 overall (2014)

8 Blake Barnett, 6-5 200, R-Freshman — No. 2 pro-style QB, No. 21 overall (2015)

2 Jalen Hurts, 6-2 210, Freshman — No. 3 dual-threat QB, No. 177 overall (2016)