Jalen is already wearing a National Championship ring. He was one second away from having two. If he went to another school and won a NC that still would not prove that he is a better QB than Tua nor that some of the criticism of his play is not valid.
Agree with all but your last comment. I think the UL system, and any like it, is too fast for his mental processing. Maybe if he went to Tech...where they huddle, have a player run the play in...and have 1 receiver routes. And yall, i'm not digging on the kid. Have been a jalen fan since he won team in practice his freshman year. But he apparently processes info at the same rate i do.
I just tagged, what I think are three reasons Jalen struggled....I'm not saying you all meant to suggests there is just one...but I think it comes down to three things...maybe in this order:
I think it is a very legitimate comparison, and in some ways explains my frustration with how some treat Hurts. Yes, he is a lot like JT, but on the other hand JT got a lot of credit and was a Heisman candidate so on so forth, while some people have basically said if they had to watch Hurts play any more they'd stop watching Alabama (which is a pretty alarming condemnation). Also, I'd add that Urban Meyer has dealt with not just JT, but a guy like Tebow (great runner, limited passer) with a reasonable amount of success.
I think we'd be fine defending him if it came to that.
First, if the teams we've played with above average defenses can basically regulate our offense to a series of 3 and outs with Jalen as our QB, I believe our defense, with the best talent and best coach, could figure that out if it came to it. Sure, he's good enough to hurt any defense with a a few broken tackles and scrambling runs, but that's about it.
Even the little things, like hitting a RB in the flat in stride or hitting the WR on a screen where he doesn't have to turn around to catch the ball - these are things we consistently see Tua do better.
I made this comment last year at some point, but I remember in the very first fall camp video that AL.com releases when practice starts and they had about a 3 minute video of Jalen and Tua alternating throwing simple little passes like a 5 yard sideline pattern or a little running back pattern into the flats and I commented right then that Jalen was consistenly throwing off target and Tau was hitting guys between the numbers in stride.
I do think it's completely fair. We're talking about how Hurts could perform in a system that's a better fit for his skill set. I mean we can do a lot of mental calisthenics, but the truth is Hurts did move the ball at Alabama most of the time. Even his first A-Day, playing against the most talented defense in the nation, he moved the ball. So, I think it's a pretty big reach to say oh yeah, that guy is just a product of the talent around him, when 2 out of 3 A-Days he played against elite talent and still got it done.
Last year Jalen Hurts averaged 8.7 yards per attempt. That aside, you say what Jalen hasn't consistently done, and then follow that up with saying what he can't do. Those two things are not necessarily the same thing. I hope he doesn't go to Auburn, but I do think Gus could relieve some of the pressure on him as a passer and exploit his abilities as a runner. In either case, he has three years left to show what he's capable of, and we can speculate all we want but we won't really know for sure until it is all said and done.
Your kinda making the point...Auburn was a different animal with Gus' trickeration. If Nick Marshal only threw for 97 yards against us that means they beat us another way...and it wasn't just all Nick Marshall. The whole Auburn getting up for Bama is a wildcard in this.
