Blake Barnett broke through the middle of Alabama's defense and was off running.

It was only practice. But it was against the Tide's starting defense, the same unit that finished the season ranked third-best nationally and held 13 of Alabama's 15 opponents to 17 offensive points or less.

"He kind of showed some of the speed that he has," fellow redshirt freshman Deionte Thompson said of Barnett, whom ESPN ranked as the top dual-threat quarterback and 14th-best overall prospect in last year's recruiting class. "I was just like, 'Wow.' Not too many quarterbacks do that against our defense. I know it's practice. But still, that he was able to do that, that was pretty impressive."

Serving as a scout team quarterback, Barnett had periodic eye-catching moments like that in practice throughout the year against Alabama's first-team defense despite working with mostly fellow freshmen and walk-ons, enough that Tide All-American linebacker Reggie Ragland said the California native is "going to be a monster."

"Once he learns everything and gets stronger and all that stuff and does the things he has to do, he's going to be a monster in college football," Ragland said of Barnett, who will be among the players competing to replace departing senior Jake Coker as Alabama's starting quarterback.

Redshirting -- and not playing -- is rarely easy for players, especially former top recruits like Barnett. But Barnett's experience this year -- and working against the Tide's starting defense on a daily basis -- has been beneficial.

"It's really taught me a lot," said Barnett, who enrolled at Alabama last January. "It's been challenging. But you kind of get thrown in there and get to learn. I've got to learn a lot from them. The speed of the game has been a big change, but that's helped me adapt to it and get used to it."

"Blake's done a great job," offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said. "... I think he's helped our defense a lot in an age of the quarterback with mobility because we play so many of those types of guys. He's done a phenomenal job and given our defense some problems."

Each week during the season, Barnett was responsible for playing the quarterback of Alabama's upcoming opponent and mimicking that player during practice to help the Tide defense prepare for the next game.

That made for at least one very interesting week, when Alabama was preparing to play Charleston Southern in November.

Charleston Southern runs a triple-option offense similar to Navy and Georgia Tech.

"There wasn't even much film that week," Barnett said. "It was just kind of learn on the fly, and it wasn't easy."

Barnett more enjoyed playing quarterbacks like Mississippi State's Dak Prescott and Clemson's Deshaun Watson.

Both -- like Barnett -- are dual-threat quarterbacks.

Leading up to Alabama's game against Prescott and Mississippi State in November, Tide defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson mentioned Barnett in response to a question about prepping for Prescott and the zone-read.

"Blake Barnett is pretty good at it," Tomlinson said. "The way he does the read zones and stuff like that, he'll hold the ball until the very last second and probably pull it in and break for 20 yards or something like that."

To former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart, facing the Tide's defense has also made Barnett "a lot tougher."

Smart said prior to the national championship game, "Those D-linemen have been hard on Blake. They've beaten him up a little bit, roughed him up, and -- even though he's got a black jersey on -- he gets popped some."

Scout team quarterbacks were warned each week to be ready to take some shots, especially weeks leading up to games against dual-threat quarterbacks.

"It makes them better, and it makes us practice tackling the quarterback," Smart said.

After weighing just 190 pounds last January, the 6-foot-5 Barnett was 205 pounds entering the offseason.

Continuing to get bigger and stronger will be among the priorities for Barnett entering the spring, when the competition will begin to be Alabama's next starting quarterback.

Barnett recently posted on Twitter, "The standard was set this year. Preparation time has begun."

"I tried to put in my best effort this year," Barnett said. "I was trying to learn the offense and trying to get the knowledge of the players while trying to compete for the starting position, so it was a lot at once. But I feel like I've got a lot more knowledge of the offense and built really great relationships with the whole team, so I'm looking forward to next year."