Better? Probably not. But it is a good thing that Tua is a more capable passer because he is not nearly as big/strong and if he had to carry the ball as often as Jalen has I would worry for his health.
That's the thing. With Tua's skills the QB will not have to run that much. Jalen had to run a lot because of his deficiencies as a passer. Tua's skills should really limit the amount of qb runs we have to do.
To add a brief thought to your comments if we look at the outstanding defensive fronts we have faced, and will continue to see in the regular season and into the playoffs, there will be times where they can negate the power running game, regardless of RB talent. One only has to look at our success against Fournette over his career at LSU.
I said last year, even before the title game, that the offense, including the line, seemed to play better with Tagovailoa. That's probably just my imagination, and due more to the fact that the offense was just better with him in the game, but who knows. We do know that some of the receivers were frustrated and unhappy with things. Perhaps some of the linemen were too. It's understandable that the defense might play better when the offense can sustain drives.
Two things:
CNS has no obligation to tell anyone outside of the team what his fall QB plans are. Based on his previous history in QB battles, he's going to let this play out until A) one of the QBs takes "life by the horns" and, more importantly, B) the team responds to that QB's leadership. How he chooses to play this in the public arena is just for show in the sense that he isn't necessarily going to tip his hand one way or the other, unless it is just so clear and obvious (see when JPW, McElroy, McCarron, and Hurts all returned for a second season as starting QB). Personally, I think it should be Tua, and I have a hard time seeing CNS and his coaches deciding a different way. Hurts need to show improvement in throwing the ball; Tua needs to show improvement in cutting down on TOs.
It is an unenviable position to be in to have to say that Jalen, a likeable, respected, and talented player will get benched. He has such an incredible record and has done everything asked of him. I am sure Saban will give him every opportunity he can to win the job and the team whether he really believes it is possible or not.
It's only right for CNS to give Jalen a fair shot at the starter's role, in fact, he is probably still the "official" starter. You can't just demote a player who led you to 2 NC games and is 26-2, just because of one half of football no matter how glorious that half. It would be disrespectful and ungrateful to Jalen, who won't be outworked. I say this as one who believes that Jalen has no chance to be the starter. He is far behind Tua in all passing qualities and IMO, is only marginally better as a runner. In fact, I prefer Tua even as a runner, even though he is slower and not quite as powerful, he is quicker, more elusive and makes better decisions on the RPO. As I've stated a couple of times before, the players, coaching staff, Bama fans and college football as a whole, will be outraged if Tua is not the starter. But proper protocol should and will be followed - Jalen deserves it. Saban has been and is quite aware of what is going on.
I agree with you. I believe Jalen will be the first QB in line during the media viewing period when spring practice opens and that is fair. I, like you, believe Tua will be the starter against Louisville.
Why? In what way is Hurts better than Tagovailoa? Check that. In what way is he as good as Tua?
In his two years on campus, Jalen has faced 14 teams with a top 50 passing efficiency defense.
Actually, and as previously noted, the coaches cut the field in half because Hurts couldn't read the entire field. So our offense got really easy to defend for good defenses. Kiffin, in 2016, worked around Hurts lack of a downfield passing game. Most of the passing yards were from completions within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage and most of those were at or behind the line of scrimmage, like the jet sweeps, which is basically a long handoff.
Add in the fact that Tua passes on pass plays rather than giving up and running after one read. Has to be hard to effectively block when you aren't sure how long your QB is going to stick to the called play before he starts improvising. Jalen simply gives us up on pass plays too early. Now all the guys who are pass blocking or running patterns have to realize that switch happen and move to run blocking. The more I think of it, the less I blame our WR's for being frustrated.
