Alabama's 'Hawaiian Tebow' Outshines Hurts, Saban Still Won't Name Starter
If I asked you to name a gunslinging, touchdown-creating, mobile college quarterback who fearlessly wears his religious faith on his sleeve, the first answer for most folks would be Tim Tebow, well-remembered for his tenure at the University of Florida.
Well, there’s a new guy in town who fits that description as well, and he had one heck of a game for the Alabama Crimson Tide in its 51-14 ritual slaughter of Louisville to open the season Saturday.
And despite this, coach Nick Saban still won’t commit to sophomore Tua Tagovailoa as the starter no matter how much he continues to outplay senior incumbent Jalen Hurts.
But “Hawaiian Tebow” showed in Week 1 that his bailing out the Tide in the National Championship Game last year was no fluke.
Tagovailoa was under center for the first four drives of the games, and three of them resulted in Tide touchdowns.
In total, Tagovailoa played six series while Hurts played four. Hawaiian Tebow threw or ran for three touchdowns; Hurts had none.
That’s not a controversy. That’s not even an argument. That, in the legendary words of former NBA star Rasheed Wallace, is “ball don’t lie.”
Tagovailoa completed 12 of 16 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns through the air, adding 26 on the ground along with a rushing score as well.
Hurts completed 5 of 9 for 70 yards, gaining only nine yards through the rush.
Alabama played an outstanding overall game. In addition to Tagovailoa’s heroics, the team got rushing touchdowns from Najee Harris and Josh Jacobs, a 77-yard kickoff return for a TD from Jacobs, and a pick-six by Shyheim Carter.
Saban, however, continues to insist that he’s going to give both guys a chance to show what they can do.
“We’re going to continue to have both these guys be weapons for us on offense because I think they can, and I hope both guys can do a good job of preparing and managing to get ready for the games so they can contribute to our team in a positive way,” Saban said.
Saban continued, seemingly justifying more than explaining his decision as coach.
“Tua played well and made some really good throws, very accurate throws, put the ball right on guys when they had halfway-decent coverage,” Saban said. “He made good decisions for the most part. We’ve got to get him to get two hands on the ball. He’s too loose with the ball in the pocket, and he’s going to get the ball knocked out of his hand. Those are the kind of things that I’m talking about that doesn’t get you ’til it gets you. So you’ve got to fix them before it gets you. But he played well. He executed. He did what he was supposed to do. He read the right things. He was well-prepared in the game.”
While Tagovailoa’s mechanics do make him extremely fumble-prone, he’s not going to learn anything sitting on the bench instead of getting reps.
Saban also said that the switch to Hurts midway through the game wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“They both knew exactly what the situation would be in the game. It’s how we practiced on Thursday, and I wanted Tua to play somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 plays, and then we’re going to put Jalen in the game,” Saban said. “It didn’t matter what the score was. He did some good things and some things we need to do better, both of them.”
But this is two games in a row — the first one coming on the biggest stage in college football, the new-and-improved collegiate version of the Super Bowl — where Tagovailoa hasn’t just outplayed Hurts, but made Hurts look like a scrub when the stats are compared and the scoreboard is consulted.
Saban even got a little chippy at ESPN’s Maria Taylor after she asked him to clarify the relative position of the two quarterbacks in the pecking order.
“I think both guys can help our team, all right?” he said. “So why do you continually try to get me to say something that doesn’t respect one of ‘em? I’m not going to, so quit asking.”
Taylor took Saban’s rebuke in stride.
Don’t mind me…Just doing my job. On to the next game. See you at @VT_Football at @FSUFootball
— Maria Taylor (@MariaTaylor) September 2, 2018
The reaction of Alabama fans on Twitter seems to indicate that Saban still has the support of the fans. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to scratch our heads and wonder just how much more “Hawaiian Tebow” is going to have to show before he gets the quarterback duties for himself.
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