Tide turns for Wildcats of Weber State

OGDEN — By now, you've been introduced to Jimmy Barnes — the Alabama transfer who has Weber State football fans thinking playoffs.

Yes, playoffs.

He's had a dozen or so stories written about him in local papers and been on TV a handful of times. Heck, he's even helped Weber State get mentioned in newspapers from Florida to California and on virtually every major Internet sports site on the Web.

But have you really been introduced to Jimmy Barnes?

Barnes is the kind of quarterback Weber State fans have been longing for since Jamie Martin won the Walter Payton Award in 1991. He's big, he's strong, he's talented and — perhaps most importantly — he's not going anywhere.

While attending Los Alamitos High in Southern California, Barnes was one of the top high school quarterbacks in the country. He was a five-star, can't-miss recruit with a blue chip pedigree who had been groomed by his coach/father for years.

That he ended up at a big-time program like Alabama was a surprise only to those who thought — or hoped — he'd end up throwing the ball for their school.

"We got lucky," Weber State coach Ron McBride said of the day he found out Barnes wanted to play for the Wildcats. "We were in a position where we were wondering what we were going to do. We didn't have anybody coming back, and the guy we thought was coming back quit the team. When Jimmy told me he was coming, it was like the football gods smiled on us for a change."

The football gods, if you believe in them, have been smiling off and on Barnes for a while, too. But it was one of those times when their gaze was off him that led the 6-foot-5, 240-pound sophomore to Ogden.

Barnes chose to play for the Crimson Tide after starring for his father's team in high school. After redshirting his first season in Tuscaloosa, Barnes was high on the depth chart but saw only a handful of snaps as a backup. Injuries, and coach Mike Shula trying to save his job, had Barnes as the projected starter in Alabama's bowl game barely seven months ago.

Then, in a cruel twist of fate, Barnes suffered his own injury — a torn ACL — and his chance to jump into the spotlight vanished.

Shortly thereafter, Shula was fired by Alabama and Nick Saban was hired. The new coach and the quarterback didn't hit it off well and, according to Barnes' father, John, there was far too much verbal abuse at practices.