Here's part of where I get caught up in defending Hurts. I said on this very forum that the game could be a train wreck. I had grave concerns, but they had more to do with the OC situation than anything else.
People still to this day discount what went down, even though it was arguably the worst OC situation a team has found itself in with only one week to prepare for a championship game. Yes, OCs have changed prior to the bowl game, but that typically happens with something like a month to prepare, Hurts and Sark had one week of prep time, one week! This is a true freshman, 18 year old, playing in front of a huge crowd, and he has one week to get used to a completely new play caller?
Now you can say oh well the offense wasn't that different, and Sark was already familiar with the team, but he wasn't and Hurts wasn't used to him calling the plays! And we saw that in the actual game, we saw an issue with timing of the plays, we saw Clemson defenders being ready for the play and Alabama unable to counter that. There's no question at all, 100%, any analysis of the game will show this, that the actual calling of the plays was disruptive. Yet, because Alabama lost 35-31, because Hurts struggled (he did put Alabama in the lead the last time he had the ball, so his poise wasn't the issue) and Clemson scored in the last second to win the game, that Hurts couldn't win that game.
I strongly refute that and I always have! My assertion is and will continue to be, that if Kiffin had been focused and capable of doing his job (unlike the Washington game, which is why he wasn't OC for the Clemson one) that Alabama would win that game, and it would have been with Hurts at quarterback. Kiffin could have and would have beaten Clemson twice in a row.
And just go back and review, consider the plays that the calling of the plays (not necessarily the play calling itself, but the timing) disrupted the offense, and consider how different the outcome would have been. All it would have taken is one or two offensive plays to turn out differently, and you can find more than that, that were disrupted. That's not even counting the fact that I consider Kiffin to be a better play caller in the first place. So... that's one that's always stuck with me, Alabama wins if Kiffin does his job! Period.