Alabama Football: No one handing the starting QB job to Bryce Young

With the exit of Tua, some argue the Alabama football starting quarterback job is up for grabs and will be won by Bryce Young. Pump those brakes.

No one will be handed the Alabama football starting quarterback job for 2020. Not Mac Jones or Taulia Tagovailoa and certainly not Bryce Young. Some Crimson Tide fans, having seen no more of Young than high school competition, are certain Young will win the job.

Such is the allure of every 5-star QB recruit en route to Tuscaloosa. Actually, Young is no longer en route. He did not return to the West Coast after the All-American game and arrived in T-Town a few days ago. Young was named the MVP of that game after throwing just nine passes, two of them for touchdowns.

Young may, in time, prove to be another generational player. Comparisons to Tua may become warranted. Right now, he is an early-enrolling freshman, with no stars assigned to his Alabama football roster slot.

It is true Nick Saban believes in starting the best player at each position. It is also true, there is a reservoir of old-school thinking tucked away in Nick Saban’s massive brain. One old-school football premise holds the best thing about freshmen is when they become sophomores. Think back how long it took Nick to set Tua loose.

There will be a QB competition in Tuscaloosa this coming spring and summer, perhaps even past fall camp and into the season. Most of that competition will be about who becomes QB2 for the Crimson Tide. Mac Jones is QB1 and he has earned it.

Let’s put it another way. Mac Jones has started four games in his college career. Outside of Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia, there are few Power Five schools where Mac would not start next fall.

Alabama football fans may argue Georgia’s defense next September will require more of a mobile Tide quarterback than Jones. That can only be pertinent if a higher sum of all quarterbacking skills resides in a different Tide starter. Maybe that will be the case next November but it’s not likely by Sept. 19 when the Bulldogs arrive at Bryant-Denny.

What will transpire in the 2020 Alabama football quarterback competition? Not even Nick Saban knows. Mark me down in the apparent minority of Crimson Tide fans who are content for Nick Saban taking his sweet time to decide.