This rumor is in line with whispers that I have heard from various sources that say the players have been more impressed with Frerotte than Feeley so far. The coaches have too. Right now, the only thing keeping the coaches from closing the competition is the reality that Feeley is learning a brand new offense while Frerotte is like the Travis Daniels of the group and knows everything in and out.
Just because you want or need a slab of steak that doesn't mean you have to pretend that the piece of bacon in front of you is prime rib. Just because we need a quarterback of the future, you don't dress up AJ Feeley as a QB of the future. Cream rises to the top. If AJ is the quarterback of the future he will rise up and take the starting position. I've never heard of a grade A quarterback riding the pine his entire career because he never got a shot. There's no such thing as a QB who is really good but needs to not have to compete in order to be really good. The guys that compete well in practice compete well in games. If you have a guy who crumbles under the pressure of competition for his job in practice, how will he react when its the 4th quarter and we're down by a TD and need to drive 40 yards in 30 seconds?
Gus Frerotte will probably be our starter. Everyone thought that Saban and the staff reviewed the tape of last season and came away with the impression that AJ Feeley is a good QB, just because we didn't go out and overtly replace him or overpay for a QB in trade. The reality might be that Linehan reviewed those tapes, came to the conclusion that AJ isn't the guy, offered up a guy who he knows can run his system at a cheap price, and instead of Saban stepping in and outright demoting a guy who won over some loyalty in the locker room last season with a few gutsy performances (emphasis on few), he brought in the other dude to compete, and let the players see for themselves which guy they want throwing to them.
You ask Randy McMichael and Chris Chambers, in private, who they think will win the QB competition, and who they want to catch passes from, I can about 90% guarantee they both say Gus.