Nick Fanuzzi - #18 – QB – 6-3 – 207 lbs. – San Antonio, TX – Churchill HS – Redshirt

After a few snaps in garbage time against Western Carolina, Nick had a shoulder problem that held him out of practice for several weeks. That led to the decision to appeal for a medical redshirt, which was granted.

Nick suffers from some of the same problems as Brandon Gibson. There’s a new young QB coming into the system (Star Jackson), so he has become the forgotten man. Granted Nick was not nearly as sought after a recruit in High School as Jackson, but a full year of learning the ropes of college football should not be totally overlooked.

2008 Prospectus: Barring an injury to John Parker Wilson there isn’t going to be playing time available for a QB in 2008, unless that QB can offer something different and can be used as a situational guy the way that Florida used Tim Tebow. Fanuzzi is the fastest of Alabama’s returning QBs, and runs about the same speed as Jackson. I’m not sold yet on either of these guys, or Greg McElroy, being able to bring enough different to the offense to warrant using a 2 QB system, though I could be convinced.

A dismal performance on A-Day (2-7 with 1 INT) didn’t help Nick’s case in the court of public opinion. Given the fact that Nick Saban has said many times that Bama’s only real chance at winning is with Wilson, you have to figure that Nick and McElroy are still considerably behind Wilson on the depth chart.

Until Jackson arrived on campus Nick was labeled as Bama’s most athletic QB. He’ll have much more of a chance in 2009 to demonstrate if that is still the case, as the QB position should be wide open headed into Spring Practice. With guys like Jackson & current QB commitment AJ McCarron on the horizon, lots of folks have already written Nick off as a career backup. That might be his future, it might not… there’s just not enough to go on right now. I do know that writing off a true freshman before he has had an opportunity to play meaningful snaps might be a bit premature.

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