Mac Jones heard the doubters this offseason. Friday night, Alabama released a hype video of its starting quarterback, using audio clips from analysts questioning his ability to run the Crimson Tide’s offense.
Following Saturday’s blowout of Texas A&M, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who still questions Jones’ credentials. The redshirt junior torched the Aggies for 435 passing yards, the fourth-highest single-game total by an Alabama player. He also matched a career-high four touchdowns, marking his fourth straight game with three or more scores through the air.
“Everyone wants to talk and say that Alabama’s not back,” Jones said through a Zoom call after the game. “I think we’ve proved the first two games that we’re improving, and we just have to continue to do that.
Jones’ first pass of the day was a 78-yard strike to John Metchie III for a touchdown. From there, the right-hander completed his next six throws, starting the game 7 of 7 for 173 yards and a touchdown through the air.
Jones’ first and only real mistake of the came in the second quarter when his pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and intercepted by DeMarvin Leal. In the past, such a mistake might have rattled him. The quarterback has been critiqued for his tendency to hold onto plays too long, letting them affect his performance. However, Saturday’s blunder was quickly forgotten.
Following the interception, Jones completed nine of his next 11 passes for 100 yards, culminating on a 2-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith to give the Tide a commanding 35-14 lead heading into the half.
“There’s nothing to it, you can’t go in there being emotional,” Jones said. “Just do your job. That’s what I tell everybody, just do your job every play... Just do your job every play, and don’t make it emotional. Play with emotion, but don’t make it emotional.”
Jones didn’t slow a bit after the break, hitting Jaylen Waddle for an 87-yard touchdown before finding Metchie again for a 63-yards score. Jones’ 85-yard touchdown was his third career passing touchdown of 85 or more yards, the most by any Alabama quarterback in school history.
“It’s something that I’ve worked on this offseason,” Jones said. “You know with all the receivers coming out, it’s hard to work with them, but I really put an emphasis on that. They’re fast and they can get behind the defense and make plays. We have so many reps at it to where they can just run up under the ball and make plays.”
Added Waddle: “He’s confident in the pocket delivering deep balls. It’s what he do.”
Through two games, Jones has completed 38 of 51 passes (74.5 percent) for 684 yards and six touchdowns and one interception.
For perspective, his current 342-yard-per game average is almost 30 yards higher than what Tua Tagovailoa posted over nine games last season. Sure it’s still a small sample size, but it’s enough to prove Jones’ talent shouldn’t be slept on any longer.
“We expect Mac to develop maturity and confidence,” Nick Saban said. “He’s very smart. He’s bright. He’s accurate with the ball, and we’ve got some good skill guys. So our strength of our team is to be able to utilize those guys… When teams play us to stop the run, we’ve got to try to make big plays, and Mac’s certainly doing a good job of that. Mac’s playing really well, but that’s really what we expect him to do.”
