Do we feel better about the qb spot now, or worse?

Based on the passes I watched Mac and Jalen throw, Mac is the better passer. I think we could win with Mac if we had to.

Jalen reminds me a little of Josh Dobbs (don't kill me). When he is on target he looks great but some times he's bouncing the ball to a receiver. Those little 3-4 yard crossing passes that Payton Manning made a living off of in the NFL are not doable for Jalen right now. He throws those behind the receiver.

B1GTide said:

If Jalen transfers, this is true. How do you feel if Jalen stays? I love Jalen, but I think that everyone is hurt by him staying and playing.

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Regrettably, I agree with this. CNS is not going to run a two QB system, especially when you have to have different playbooks for different QBs. I also agree that if he plans to transfer, go after the spring semester ends, sitting out a year to develop and learn a new system may be exactly what he needs.

I feel more confident now that Tua will end up being the starter. I always thought he should be so that makes me feel somewhat better about the offense. On the down side Jalen may transfer and if Tua gets hurt we have to rely on an unproven QB in Mac Jones. Maybe Jones could step in if needed and play like he did on Saturday but he could just as easily get in a big game situation, get rattled and commit a fatal turnover. With Jalen as the backup I wouldn't have the same turnover worries.

If Jalen is going to transfer, it's best for him and the team for him to do it now. He needs time to adjust to new surroundings and Alabama doesn't need to waste time on someone who will not be here for the 2018 season.

B1GTide said:

I hate to say it, but I don't think that Jalen is going to get enough attention from Enos to develop much beyond where he is today. I mean, if you were Enos, who would you focus on? The two talented passers or the runner who wishes that he was a passer?

I have worked in management most of my life. You cannot invest in everyone equally. You invest more heavily in the people who have the greatest talent. Maybe if Jalen worked with someone outside of Alabama during the summer? Has he been doing this already? If so, it hasn't helped. If not, why not?

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I have watched Jalen throw at every opportunity but admit to being limited by lack of slow motion study of him and other QB's throwing the football. I did watch some of Jake Fromm's throws over the weekend and it appears that there is a world of difference in the way Fromm drives the ball versus Jalen. Based on years of studying the throwing motion I would just say, to simplify, that I believe Jalen has a world of work to do to improve his release, to develop action on the football, and improve his accuracy and touch over the entire range of his throws. I believe with work he could show considerable improvement. My most significant frustration on Saturday was, considering the defense he was playing against, he needed to get the ball out significantly faster than he did on a number of plays.

The other unanswerable question from this weekend is how Tua would look against the pressure from the number one defense. The consensus here would be that he would throw the ball much more effectively but how would he deal with the pass rush Jalen had in his face on Saturday.

Even though CNS is apparently frustrated with JH, I believe he sees challenging games ahead and would much prefer to have both QB's going into the Louisville game. Particularly with the hand injury that Tua is dealing with.

B1GTide said:

If Jalen transfers, this is true. How do you feel if Jalen stays? I love Jalen, but I think that everyone is hurt by him staying and playing.

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Probably hurts himself more than anything, unless he really is allowed to be a last option and can get a redshirt out of the deal. I think that, if he wants to play QB, he will want two years to do so. Not have a year of eligibility wasted doing spot duty in garbage time. His best option, if he chooses to stay, is to be the emergency QB with Tua at 1, Jones at 2, and finish his degree while preserving the two years he has remaining for his next school.

Better - We are a much better offense, passing and running with Tua. Much better.
Worse - From a depth standpoint. If Jalen leaves and I guess that's when he leaves, if Tua gets hurt not sure we can win titles with Mac. No idea.

But overall, I feel good about the QB situation.

TomFromBama said:

Worse.

FWIW, we've known since the Vandy game last year that Tua was "The Future" for UA football - the only question was "When". We will be fine at QB, but it's the same deal we thought we had in 2017 - we are "fine" . . . . .pending any injury.

My HOPE for A-Day was that Jalen would take (at least One) step FORWARD and have a good showing. For whatever reasons, that didn't happen.

Unlike 2017, we DO have a proven winner at backup QB (IF Jalen hangs around) and we know Jalen can do enough to beat 90% of our opponents. We also know that he can't do enough to win against the top %10 of the teams we potentially might play next season and post-season.

Mishew may be a viable backup, and lets hope he his - just as we ALWAYS hope none of our players suffer injuries.

Mac Jones has proven himself to be a "Gamer" and, who knows?, he might one day be good enough to start at some SEC teams. But lets not forget that this was A-Day, and he was playing against a second team Defense that mostly UNDER-PERFORMED. He did well, but he didn't exactly "dominate." As good as Jones' performance was, he's no Thomas Darrah.

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Minshew isn't coming to Alabama.

The greatest thing about CNS is he has the ability to adapt and grow. He will make it work. RTR

After Jalen’s performance on Saturday and his dad telegraphing in an interview last week that his son will only play the qb position, I feel better about the whole thing being settled sooner than later. That being said, I fully expect Coach Saban to handle it publicly in a different manner in order to make it look like this has been a long, deliberative process so that no doubt is left in the minds of the Hurts family that Jalen was afforded every opportunity to retain the starting position at qb.

I feel better. Period.

Worse, Mac looked good against the second team secondary, but that doesn't mean he's game ready. That, along with Tua's injury and the prospect of Hurts leaving is risky. Two scholarship quarterbacks just isn't enough.

Better. I believe that Jalen will transfer if he's not the starter - and, IMHO, he should not be the starter. So that leaves Tua and Mac. I haven't seen Mac play and didn't know anything about his abilities. I just know that he was in Saban's doghouse a good part of last year. So I was concerned that we had nobody that would even be serviceable backing up Tua. But it sounds like Mac played pretty well and has the ability to run the offense and make some big plays. That makes me feel better about our QB situation.

Don`t know about feeling " better " about the situation but for me the situation is " clearer ".

I feel better because the QB competition has become clear - its going to be Tua. I also feel better that Mac Jones looked like a legit QB. We could go 11-1 with him this year.

Tideflyer said:

Don`t know about feeling " better " about the situation but for me the situation is " clearer ".

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Ditto.

Will be interested to see how a whole summer of 7 on 7 and fall practice helps. I still expect improvement from Hurts. It likely won't be enough but there will probably be more.

I feel better, with a caveat. That being that Tua's injury is a minor one with no lingering effects. If this is the case, I expect to see him take the field against Louisville as the #1 QB, and I expect to see Jalen and Mac both on the field at some point in the game. We have three good quarterbacks, 2 who are exceptional. Mac might also be exceptional in time, he has some very good unrefined talent.

If Jalen doesn't play, it will be an indication to me that he has made a decision to either move on or to take a redshirt year unless forced into service by injury, etc. It has been mentioned that he could stay on the team and graduate in December before taking a transfer and play immediately. That is also true, but if he redshirted in 2018, he could do the same thing and transfer with 2 years of eligibility as did Coker for Bama.

Personally, I'd love to see Hurts and Tua on the field together, with Hurts at a new position, but I doubt that is in the cards. Hurts wants to be a QB and likely will be one somewhere. That being the case, my only real reservation about the QB situation is depth. I feel good about Tua and Mac, but if Hurts is not there come fall, I would worry about the #3 guy, because I don't even know who that would be right now. Before I'm reminded that the only real indicators about Mac were in the spring game against our #2 defense, I understand that. I also understand that our #2 defense is probably better than most that we will face in 2018.

Intl.Aperture said:

Ditto.

Will be interested to see how a whole summer of 7 on 7 and fall practice helps. I still expect improvement from Hurts. It likely won't be enough but there will probably be more.

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I get you...but the problem is that I don't think the lights have come on for JH. I really don't think he believes that he needs to improve...

crimsonaudio said:

I don't think that's the case at all - every indication is that he is a hard worker who is introspective about his strengths and weaknesses. That said, some folks process data more rapidly than others (not necessarily tied to intelligence) and Tua processes the data at a more rapid pace than Jalen does. It's easy to see was they move through their progressions - Tua looks like he reads and react twice as fast as JH. While you can coach a guy to make quick hot reads, the brain can only process so quickly, and I think JH has hit the wall wrt dynamically seeing the field.

I do believe he can improve his accuracy as a passer, but I don't think you'll ever see him progressing through his reads with the speed and confidence that we see in Tua. And that's not a knock on JH, really - guys that can process as rapidly as TT are rare.

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That is why some of them make a lot of money too.