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Cooper Bateman's longtime coach, Scott Cate told The Huntsville Times that he wouldn't attend Alabama's opener unless Bateman was starting.

It was a lie. He went anyway.

"I couldn't miss that game," he laughed.

But here's how football-crazed Alabama is: The article wasn't accompanied by any photos of Cate, and he didn't wear anything identifiable to AT&T Stadium last Saturday. Yet, as he leaned on the railing and looked out on the field, an older lady asked him, "You're Cooper Bateman's quarterback coach, aren't you?"

"It's incredible, the amount of pressure," Cate said. "They say the two most important people in Alabama are Nick Saban and the quarterback."

Tuscaloosa News executive sports editor Tommy Deas has another line: "Around here, you will hear people say that there are three seasons: spring football, football and recruiting."

So intense and frequently erring is the speculation that Bateman's mom, Lisa, swore off the stories she was finding on the Internet. Once, she sat on the couch at Cooper's Tuscaloosa apartment as a roommate's dad read to them from Google: "Cooper Bateman's looking to transfer."

They laughed it off.

Bateman's looking to be Alabama's No. 1 quarterback, and he has a chance as the Tide hosts Middle Tennessee on Saturday.

Off-limits to media because the battle is said to be ongoing, Bateman went 7-of-8 for 51 yards against Wisconsin — his first game action at quarterback since Cottonwood lost at Bingham in October 2012.

Senior Jake Coker started and "did absolutely nothing that would cost him the job in any way," Deas said, finishing 15-of-21 for 213 yards and a touchdown.

But Bateman made his case.

Cate has a saying: If you're unprepared, you're nervous. If you're prepared, you're excited.

Before the opener, Bateman told him, "I'm excited."

"Cooper did what he was supposed to do," Cate said. "He at least kept his name in the running."

Bateman's folks had booked the trip months in advance, before anybody was talking about Bateman as Alabama's potential starter, and not because they were especially prescient. Dallas is simply cheaper to visit than Tuscaloosa. To see Bateman under center, "it was kind of surreal, actually," Lisa said.

Her son has come a long way since spring, when he was buried so deep on the depth chart that he got reps at wide receiver.

Saban said on this week's SEC conference call that coaches sit down with each Alabama player a couple of times each year to talk about their strengths and weaknesses. They told Bateman he needed to improve his accuracy.

"I think it speaks a lot of their character and how much you can trust them if they actually go do those things, and I think in Cooper's case, he certainly did that," Saban said.

Post-spring, Bateman worked out with Cate in Arizona, and he continued Cate's exercises in Tuscaloosa, shortening his stride and his throwing motion.

Still, he had at least four guys ahead of him at the start of training camp. At one point, "he was on the scrub field," said Cate, who talks to Bateman daily and reviews his practice tape. "He wasn't even getting looked at."

A bad day from another quarterback earned him an invite to play with Alabama's top units, "and he just ripped it," Cate said. They told him to stay another day, "and he ripped it again."

And again. And again.

After Coker missed a few days with a minor foot injury and Bateman was lights-out in Alabama's second scrimmage, reports began to surface that Bateman might be in the mix.

That alone puts him on track for the nine-year plan Cate laid out with Bateman when he was a high school freshman: Compete for the starting job as a redshirt sophomore. Check.

Of primary importance at Alabama is taking care of the ball, Deas said. "They're not looking for Dan Marino to come in and lift the team on his shoulders and try to outplay everybody."

Coker has the bigger arm and, as a Florida State transfer, more press clippings.

"I think the thing that most Alabama fans see that Cooper could bring to the table as a quarterback is athleticism and mobility," Deas said. "He seems to have that in greater abundance."

Alabama hasn't lost a starting quarterback to injury since Brodie Croyle tore his ACL early in the 2004 season, but should Bateman become the backup, Deas suspects he might play as a "changeup guy"

Mom — who leaves the football talk to Cate — said her son roomed with Coker on the road last year, and when she'd ask about him, "Coop would just laugh and have a big smile on his face." He likes him.

The Batemans attended a handful of games last season, and friends and family meet up to watch Alabama at The Point After in Murray — about 15 constituting the proxy cheering section last week.

He's on track to earn his degree in May, when the transfer talk might begin anew. But even if he doesn't earn the starting job, Lisa thinks he'll stay. It's been everything he thought it would be, she said.

He recorded his first hole-in-one recently while playing at Murray Parkway, and his dad, Brett, noted a similar level of excitement when they talked on the phone Thursday.

"He said, 'Coop, you sound wonderful,'" Lisa said. "I can hear the smile in your voice."

Bateman will likely play Saturday, and he's not nervous. He's prepared.

mpiper@sltrib.com Twitter: @matthew_piper —

Cooper Bateman

Vitals • 6-foot-3, 220 pounds

High school • Four-star quarterback was courted by many of the nation's top schools, with a full-court press from LSU, Florida, Auburn and, locally, from Utah. He passed for 7,654 yards and 68 touchdowns in three seasons at Cottonwood.

At Alabama • Redshirted in 2013 and served as the team's holder last season, perfect on 22 field goals and 65 extra points. Went 7-of-8 last week against Wisconsin in his quarterback debut, relieving Jake Coker.