Nick Saban weighs in on the performance of Ja'Corey Brooks

Sophomore Alabama wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooks enjoyed a bit of a breakout against the Vanderbilt Commodores this past weekend. Doesn’t everybody? Joking, but Brooks certainly turned in the best stat line of his young career, hauling in six catches for 117 yards and two scores — the firsts of his season.

After the game Nick Saban was asked about Brooks and whether that outing was the “ideal” performance for a wideout like himself. The head coach had few critiques and lots of praise for Brooks after a career day.

“We have high expectations for, you know, what our guys can do. And Ja’Corey certainly didn’t disappoint tonight. He had a great start to the game and finished the game and did a really, really good job to make some great catches.”

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Then, Saban went on to explain how a receiver’s numbers in any given game can vary vastly based on quarterback play, and even more so, defensive coverage.

“You know, but again, it’s not — I know I sound like a broken record here, but I can’t tell you who’s going to have a good game. It depends on the coverage,” he explained. “So you read the coverage and that’s where you throw the ball relative to where the coverage is and you might have a middle-of-the-field beater on this side and you might have a split-safety beater on this side. But I can’t tell which guy is going to get the ball and Bryce [Young] doesn’t know who’s going to get the ball either sometimes until after he reads the coverage.”

The Commodore coverage just couldn’t keep Brooks wrapped up on Saturday. Thus, a huge day ensued. Here were Nick Saban’s final comments on the performance, noting that “Ja’Corey had a lot of opportunities tonight and he took advantage of it. And we were very pleased with the way he played, okay.”

Surprise surprise. Another budding star at wide receiver for the Crimson Tide.