Alabama Football: Ranking Alabama starting quarterbacks under Nick Saban
By Ronald Moody
No. 2 – Mac Jones
A strong argument can be made that Mac Jones and the No.1 choice should be 1B and 1A. More than a few Alabama football fans would rate Mac as 1A.
Mac Jones came from way back in the pack of Nick Saban’s quarterbacks. Most of his Alabama Football career was spent in the shadow of Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa. He could have taken the easy path of a transfer offering more playing opportunities. Instead, he stuck and worked and never gave up on himself.
The determination and hard work paid off handsomely. The results included a Crimson Tide National Championship and a pile of individual awards. He was a consensus first-team All-American. He won the Davey O’Brien, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm and Manning awards and finished third in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.
Mac’s four, 400-yard passing games tied an SEC single-season record. He set the Crimson Tide record for passing yards in a season with 4,500. Jones also set the NCAA single-season completion record at 77.4 percent. Mac had the highest Passing Efficiency Rating in the FBS for the 2020 season at 203.1.
In a Crimson Tide career of 30 games, Mac Jones passed for 6,126 yards. As a backup in eleven of those games, he attempted a total of 34 passes. In direct contrast, as a starter he was sensational.