Alabama Football: 5 position battles to watch this spring
5. Backup Quarterback
Jalen Hurts was college football’s greatest luxury player last season. No other team could see their starting quarterback get hurt and replace him with a player of Hurts’ caliber and experience. That luxury is now gone, as Hurts transferred as a graduate student to Oklahoma to take up the transfer torch left behind by Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray.
Tua Tagovailoa is entrenched as the starting quarterback, and enters the 2019 season as the presumptive Heisman favorite. But the rising junior also suffered several nagging injuries last season that could be potentially fatal to Alabama’s hopes next season if they happen again.
He played most of the second half of the season with a sprained knee, and by the time that was back to near-full strength, he sprained an ankle in the SEC Championship against Georgia, an injury that knocked him out of the game. Hurts was able to rescue Alabama off the bench, but that luxury isn’t likely to be afforded next season.
Rising redshirt sophomore Mac Jones enters spring as the presumed No. 2 on the depth chart. Jones threw 13 passes last season in mop-up duty, but hasn’t had to take a meaningful snap in his career, outside of the one snap against LSU when Tua exited for a play with an injury and Hurts unavailable due to an injury of his own.
Jones has flashed some potential, but he’s far from the caliber of Hurts. He might one day be a viable option for the Crimson Tide at quarterback, but he’ll need to progress a lot this spring for Alabama to feel comfortable with him taking big snaps next season.
Behind him are a pair of talented freshmen, Taulia Tagovailoa and Paul Tyson, both of whom enrolled early and will participate throughout the spring. Saban will hope that one, or both, players progress enough to push Jones for the backup role. It’s likely that both will see a redshirt season, though, barring something catastrophic, with the Tide having the ability to play them in up to four games while maintaining that redshirt season.
Spring practice and the A-Day game at the end will give fans a good indication on if Jones has progressed enough to hold off the talented freshmen pushing for his spot.