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Five questions as the Alabama Crimson Tide prepares for Arkansas
Rewind to Jan. 9 inside of Mercedes Benz Stadium. Alabama trailed Georgia 13-0 at halftime of the national championship game, and Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban needed to find a spark for his team.
Saban found that in Tua Tagovailoa, marching the then-freshman onto the field to replace starter Jalen Hurts, a former SEC Offensive Player of the Year who had led Alabama to two straight national championship appearances.
“We had this in our mind that if we were struggling offensively we would give Tua an opportunity,” said Saban following Alabama’s dramatic 26-23 overtime win over Georgia.
“No disrespect to Jalen, the real thought was we came into the game thinking that we were going to run the ball and be able to run quarterback runs, which we did make a couple of explosive plays, but without the absence of a passing game, being able to convert on third down, I just did not feel we could run the ball well enough, and thought Tua would give us a better chance, and a spark which he certainly did.”
You know the rest of the story. Tagovailoa went on to complete 14 of 24 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns, including a 41-yard bomb to DeVonta Smith in overtime to clinch the national title and write his name in Alabama history.
Following the game, Hurts who started 28 consecutive games at Alabama was asked about the decision to go with Tagovailoa as the starter.
“Look, we won. We’re national champs,” he responded without hesitation.
Hurts was then asked how he could be so selfless at the moment.
“We had to wait two years for this, and we got it done this year… He’s dang good, and we’re national champs!”
Jalen Hurts on having Tua Tagovailoa finish off the Georgia Bulldogs
Now fast forward back to this week.
That spark needed from Tagovailoa in the national championship game has more than carried over into this season as the Crimson Tide offense has turned into something fans at Alabama have never seen before. The offense has been unstoppable through the first five games of the season. The Crimson Tide has scored 45 or more points through the first five games, which has never been done before in school history, and enter Week 6 leading the nation with 54.2 points per game.
While Tagovailoa continues to receive praise for that turnaround, Hurts has waited graciously in the shadows.
Hurts received the news from Saban that Tagovailoa would be the starter the before the Louisville game, and after two seasons as the starting quarterback, he sat on the bench as Tagovailoa took to the field to start against the Cardinals.
It was the first time in nearly 30 games that Alabama would have a different quarterback leading the No. 1 team in the nation down the field. Tagovailoa marched down the field completing 12 of 16 of his passes for 227-yards with two touchdowns to lead the Crimson Tide past Louisville 51-14, while Hurts had was a quiet 5 of 9 for 70-yards. While the play of Tagovailoa merited the starting role, Hurts never quit on the team.
Hurts could have pulled the “I’m not the starter, and I’m transferring card” like Clemson’s former starter Kelly Bryant did when freshmen Trevor Lawrence was named the starter by Dabo Swinney last week. Instead, he played in each of the five games this season as a backup and has shown improvement and dependability. On the season, Hurts is 26 of 37 passing for 394-yards with five touchdowns and one interception, his efficiency rating is 198.1, which is second in the entire SEC (over 25 attempts) behind only Tagovailoa who has an efficiency rating of 238.32.
Before the fifth game of the season against Louisiana-Lafayette, rumors swirled that Hurts had played his last game at Alabama and would take his redshirt, sit out the rest of the year, and transfer. Hurts came right onto the field with 53 seconds left in the first quarter and later threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs III in the second quarter.
Following the victory over Louisiana-Lafayette, Saban heaped praise on his quarterback’s selflessness.
“I know there has been a lot of talk around here about players transferring and the transfer rule, and Jalen handled this extremely well,” Saban said. “He’s a great team player, team leader, respecting his teammates, and sticking with the program here. He played very well today and is taking advantage of having an opportunity to play, playing well, and try to create value for himself which I think is the message I would try to send to all players out there who are trying to take advantage of this new rule.”
Tagovailoa met with the media on Tuesday and explained how Jalen informed him that this was now his team.
“After the Louisville game, Jalen is usually in front of me before our flex lines, and Jalen told me to come to the front. He said, bro, this is your team now.”
It was the passing of the torch between a former starting quarterback to the new starting quarterback at Alabama.
“To have someone like Jalen stick within this. Knowing that he’s been the starter for the past two years and to have someone come in front of him now, the kind of character that he has, the maturity that he has shown throughout the year within our team this year, I think that is something special. We hear things going around with other quarterbacks and what not, but to have Jalen still stick with it truly tells how he was raised as a person and testifies to his family as well.”
Jalen could have left his team; he could have been all about himself in a world filled with self-gratification. He could have listened to all the “experts” who say he is not a quarterback, but all he’s done is trust the process, and it has been admirable how he’s put the team first, just as he’s done since he arrived in Tuscaloosa.
Kyle Henderson is the Managing Editor at BamaInsider.com. Email him at Kyle@bamainsider.com | Rivals_Kyle on twitter
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