There was one prolonged argument prior to Sims senior season (that stretched over multiple threads) in which multiple people repeatedly insisted Blake Sims could not throw the long ball! On this forum, repeated, unchecked except by me. I'd come in and go look, I saw him throw the deep pass at A-Day, he can do it, he might not have the best range but he can get the ball out there. I'd get shot down, they'd go back to asserting he can't do it. It was frustrating because they simply wouldn't listen to the truth, they had their minds made up. I finally gave up and told them we'd have to see. Now here we are, and the last time I saw a conversation about Blake Sim's deep pass, it was that he was one of the best ever at it, at Alabama. So, as someone that spent years standing up for the guy's basic abilities, as literally one of his biggest defenders on this forum, I'm not the guy to underestimate his abilities.
Having said that. He was always obviously limited as a quarterback. My whole assertion was he could play QB, and could win at Alabama. It was never that he could do everything. I really had a tough time holding ground after his other A-Day travesties, in which he was absolutely abysmal. Even I started to doubt him somewhat, because he just looked so bad. But Saban explained it in pretty simple and relevant terms. He said that Blake was being asked to do different things at A-Day. And he looked really bad doing it. That's not a knock on Blake Sims, it's just his limitations. What Kiffin did was strip the playbook of things Blake Sims struggled at, simplified things, and left in things he could do. It worked, well, as your statements attest to (in contrast to the many negative things people had to say for so long). But to kind of retroactively upgrade him, isn't realistic. He was carefully utilized, he was not just put in the pocket and told to make reads. That wasn't how he was used.
Now, back to Hurts and what I said. I said Sims senior year he might have been a better passer than Hurts was last year. But, Sims was a better passer his senior year than the year before. People improve, and Hurts did as well. The thing you might be overlooking with this statement is this. I said Kiffin helped Blake deal with his weaknesses. He helped Hurts as well and I fully believe had Kiffin been just mentally present, that Hurts would have done better against Washington and Clemson, and Alabama would have won the title. The thing is Daboll is a pro guy and Kiffin is an NFL guy. He's helped Hurts develop, probably more than Kiffin would have. But he's not giving Hurts the easier stuff, he's not covering up Hurts weakness like Kiffin did last year when Hurts wasn't as good a passer, or like Kiffin did for Blake Sims. Daboll is asking Hurts to make more complex reads, he's allowing him to hold onto the ball longer, and you see the result. Hurts can manage against weaker defenses, but he's not yet up to doing as much against the best defenses (and a lot of college quarterbacks wouldn't be).
Absolutely. There's no justification for benching Hurts at this point in the season. You want a QB battle in the spring when you can handle the situation better. You don't blow up what's left of the season because of some issues. It's odd that you're so against just feeding Hurts some easier passes but swapping out starters? No big deal... which sounds more disruptive to you?
