B1GTide said:

I don't care who he starts as long as Tua sticks around to bail him out if he chooses poorly. Now, if he starts Jalen and Tua transfers, there would be a meltdown. And it would be warranted because the dynasty would end.

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Ok Dan Wolken, enough with the hyperbole lol

The thing is based on Saban's comments during A-day Jalen won't be the guy unless he has drastically improved. Maybe, Jalen gets a drive or 2 vs Louisville early simply because of Saban's loyalty but even that I tend to doubt.

I just find it very hard to believe the GOAT doesn't see what literally everyone else does.

KrAzY3 said:

I've seen data to indicate Alabama is actually at their best when they lean on a strong running game instead of a strong QB,

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A strong QB, just not a running QB.

drwho said:

A strong QB, just not a running QB.

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The truth is Alabama's offense scored as many points and gained as many yards with Hurts as they did on average with the other guys. I thought it was obvious he was included in that statement. There was no meaningful drop in overall production. Now, having said that we can all pinpoint some major issues. However, if Alabama actually committed to an offense with Hurts that was built around his skillset (and plenty of college programs do utilize something like that), they would have been more effective against elite defenses as well. It's just that Dabolls deep ball oriented offense was never going to work well with Hurts limited downfield passing skillset. I'm happy with how things turned out, but think it's absurd to claim the apocalypse was right around the corner if Hurts started another game. Yeah, some things would have changed, and not all for the better, but Saban would have made the necessary adjustments.

Point being, Alabama doesn't implode if they ended up "stuck" with Hurts. What they most likely would have had to do is build the offense to cater more to him, and to compensate for the loss of some skill players. But if they could win when GMac couldn't throw the ball more than 20 yards or run, they sure as heck still could with Hurts. It is just that some changes would have been required, and I get that would have upset some people deeply, but good thing they weren't around for the instillation of the wishbone or I imagine some people would have been jumping off roofs.

KrAzY3 said:

I get that would have upset some people deeply, but good thing they weren't around for the instillation of the wishbone or I imagine some people would have been jumping off roofs.

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The wishbone was an innovative offense for the time, and obviously worked well for several years for Alabama and Oklahoma (for longer even). That, though, was a whole other college football world. It was still predicated on a strong defense, and it took defensive coaches a few years to learn to defend (and recruit for it) the wishbone offense.

The rules have changed so much in the last 20 years or so that 3 yards and a cloud of dust, and a strong defense, won't often win it all for you. Neither will a mostly one dimensional offense that doesn't even effectively take advantage of excellent running backs. The offense we have had the last couple of years looks like a high school pickup game on the PE field. I do think, though, that Lane Kiffin did a great job dealing with what he had. The numbers, though deceptive, show that.

edit: He catches some flak, but I'm pretty sure Greg McElroy would have won at least one title the last couple years (credit Tua with this last one). I think we'd have won in 2016 even with JPW.

Lane Kiffin: Alabama 'in great position' with QB battle

More praise for Tua...

[FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]Asked to assess Tagovailoa’s throwing ability, Kiffin shared his thoughts with this story.[/FONT][FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]“Oh, top one percent,” Kiffin said. “At this camp there was this quarterback competition thing, and all the top college guys around the country were there. He just picks up the ball, (the target is) about 40 yards away, he’s got to throw kind of horizontally, like he did in the championship game, into this net thing that a normal guy might get one 1-for-5. He picks up two and gets 2-for-2. That’s just how he is.[/FONT]
[FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]“His touch is just … when he was in high school, people compared him to [/FONT][FONT=proxima_nova_rgbold]Steve Young[/FONT][FONT=proxima_nova_rgregular]. Just a unique ability.”[/FONT]

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Here's the interesting thing. At the Manning Camp, All counselor except for one are available to speak to the media today.... Guess who is the lone exception one? Jalen Hurts.

Crimson White said:

neither will a mostly one dimensional offense that doesn't even effectively take advantage of excellent running backs.

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What exactly would you expect a run oriented option offense to do? I'm not saying that's ideal (and certainly not saying it should be the wishbone, that was just an example), but look at what Auburn did. They went through the heart of the SEC schedule, a three game stretch, without throwing the ball. Did it work? You tell me, they went to the national championship that year and beat Alabama without the deep ball. So, I'm not saying yeah I wanted Alabama to install a run oriented option offense, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying if Alabama lost some of their downfield threats, and their QB was Hurts, well... it sure starts to make sense, and you can, absolutely, positively win games with that sort of offense in present day. Otherwise, there wouldn't be teams winning games with that offense in present day.

You might say well yeah but both Harris backs would leave to, ok so Alabama has Jalen Hurts, Josh Jacobs, and Brian Robinson lining up together in the backfield. I'm sure someone could have figured something out...

Crimson White said:

I'm pretty sure Greg McElroy would have won at least one title the last couple years (credit Tua with this last one).

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And I'm pretty sure Jalen Hurts would have won the 2009 championship game...

KrAzY3 said:

And I'm pretty sure Jalen Hurts would have won the 2009 championship game...

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No he wouldn't have.... because he would never have beaten the 2009 Fla team in the SECCG to even get to Texas. Greg out-dueled Tebow and was the MVP.

Florida would have shut us down with no passing threat. Greg's ability to push the ball down the field kept them off-balance all night.

GMac is a MUCH better Passing QB than Hurts.

tusks_n_raider said:

No he wouldn't have.... because he would never have beaten the 2009 Fla team in the SECCG to even get to Texas. Greg out-dueled Tebow and was the MVP.

Florida would have shut us down with no passing threat. Greg's ability to push the ball down the field kept them off-balance all night.

GMac is a MUCH better Passing QB than Hurts.

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Agree that Jalen would have beat Texas but also agree that he might not have beat FL to get there. Hard to say. The 2009 FL defense was very good, but not great.

B1GTide said:

Agree that Jalen would have beat Texas but also agree that he might not have beat FL to get there. Hard to say. The 2009 FL defense was very good, but not great.

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Disagree. They were #4 in Total Defense, #4 in Scoring Defense, #12 in Rushing Defense, and #2 in Passing Defense.

That's a pretty great Defense.... no way #2 has ANY success against that D. It would have been like the 1st half against UGA in the NCG.

I think Tua will be the starter as long as he doesn't do anything negative on the field,i.e.becoming a turnover-prone risk taker.

tusks_n_raider said:

Disagree. They were #4 in Total Defense, #4 in Scoring Defense, #12 in Rushing Defense, and #2 in Passing Defense.

That's a pretty great Defense.... no way #2 has ANY success against that D. It would have been like the 1st half against UGA in the NCG.

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Thanks, it just did not feel like an elite defense. Maybe it was better than I remember.

TitleWave said:

Another "Bingo!" for B1GTide - Tua's probably more elusive as well and not terribly far behind in the solid specimen status, either, powerlifting personal bests notwithstanding...

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Georgia didn't have enough film to really prepare for Tua and that gave CNS the upper hand in the 2nd half. If Tua had started all year and in the NC Game the roles were reversed, I wonder if the outcome would have been the same . If Jalen came in the 2nd half he may have been the hero that night. I hope CNS can play both QB's all year. Make every team we play have to prepare for two QB's.

capnfrog said:

Georgia didn't have enough film to really prepare for Tua and that gave CNS the upper hand in the 2nd half. If Tua had started all year and in the NC Game the roles were reversed, I wonder if the outcome would have been the same . If Jalen came in the 2nd half he may have been the hero that night. I hope CNS can play both QB's all year. Make every team we play have to prepare for two QB's.

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There was plenty of film on Tua for UGA to prepare.

Nothing I've seen vs good defenses the last 2 years would suggest to me that Jalen would have been any better than he was the first half.

I hope Tagovailoa is the first team qb, because I think it will make us a better team, and if Jalen stays, I hope he gets plenty of playing time in games that are over by the 4th quarter.

capnfrog said:

Georgia didn't have enough film to really prepare for Tua and that gave CNS the upper hand in the 2nd half. If Tua had started all year and in the NC Game the roles were reversed, I wonder if the outcome would have been the same . If Jalen came in the 2nd half he may have been the hero that night. I hope CNS can play both QB's all year. Make every team we play have to prepare for two QB's.

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I doubt very much if Jalen could have rallied us in the second half had we been down 13-0 at half with Tua starting the game. When you're trailing by 13 you want your better passer in there. I've never seen a team put their running QB in there when trailing. If Jalen would have made one or two big runs Georgia would have put a "spy" on him to take the run away. Anytime we're trailing we want Tua in there, unless he's throwing INT's.

capnfrog said:

If Jalen came in the 2nd half he may have been the hero that night.

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Never would have happened. The book on Jalen is out, and good defenses can easily exploit his weaknesses.

Wolfwallstreet said:

Jalen will never play a down in the NFL.

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Unless he changes positions.

drwho said:

Never would have happened. The book on Jalen is out, and good defenses can easily exploit his weaknesses.

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I think he meant if the roles were reversed and there was little tape of Jalen. He might be right there because running QBs are hard to defend without good preparation. Where I think he could be wrong - assuming that having more film on Tua would have produced dramatically different results. Tua forces a defense to defend the entire field. Tua's level of play cannot be " schemed". Film is not going to help.