Five for five: Examining Alabama's quarterback competition

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This week we will examine five topics surrounding Alabama football while providing five points of interest for each item. Today we continue the series with a look at Alabama’s quarterback battle.

Alabama head coach Nick Saban might not be answering the question, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth asking. With all the talk of a quarterback battle between returning starter Jalen Hurts and national championship game hero Tua Tagovailoa, could Alabama be thinking up a way to play both quarterbacks regularly next season?

“I haven’t given it any thought right now,” Saban said last week during the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham, Ala. “We’ve got two guys competing at the position. I’m not going to speculation on things that may or may not happen. We have a lot of choices and decisions that have to be made. So I’m not going to really answer questions that are hypothetical by nature, which you seem to love to ask me.”

While Saban isn’t thinking about the proposition of a two-quarterback system at the moment, he did bring the topic up during an interview with ESPN’s Chris Low earlier this year.

"The most important thing is to play the best guy, and if both guys can play winning football, it's not out of the question that we'll find a role for both guys in fairness to both guys," Saban said. "I don't know that there's any more to it than that.”

While both quarterbacks have dual-threat capabilities, Hurts is viewed as the better runner while Tagovailoa has demonstrated more command of the passing game. Still, even in a two-quarterback system, one player is bound to get the majority of snaps behind center. It’s unclear whether or not either Hurts or Tagovailoa would be satisfied playing second fiddle in any capacity.