Alabama Football: Jalen Hurts represents everything that is right

Fans not pleased with Hurts’ shortcomings

In the opening playoff game against Washington Huskies, Jalen finished the game 7 of 14 for 57 yards and no touchdowns. Restless fans were beginning to speculate where was the explosive offense from earlier in the season.

Suddenly, the true freshman quarterback had to deal with the quirky loss of offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, fired by head coach Nick Saban days before the national championship game. Kiffin was the virtuoso architect that expertly incorporated using Jalen’s tremendous skill set as a dangerous runner and rhythm passer.

Former University of Southern California head coach Steve Sarkisian joined Alabama as an offensive analyst in the summer.  With Kiffin moving on to his head coaching job at FAU, Saban looked to the old offensive USC coordinator to fill the slot. Next, Sarkisian was unfairly given seven days to prepare Hurts for Clemson.

The offense faltered going two for 15 on third downs. With Alabama trailing 28-24, the unflappable quarterback carried the Tide nation on his back one last time. He drove the offense down the field and scored on a remarkable 30 yard run putting the Tide up 31-28 with two minutes remaining. The Crimson Tide fell 34-31 after the defense gave up a score with one second remaining.

Considerably after everything he had accomplished, anti-Hurt fans were still not happy with the All-SEC first-team quarterback.