Jumbo Package: Could Tua and Jalen be Leak-Tebow 2.0?

Happy Friday, everyone. Nothing else going on so, Hey! Let’s write about the quarterbacks!

The second half of the national title game showed us what Tagovailoa can do at the controls of the offense. (The good and the bad; his two plays in overtime might be the starkest contrast between a pair of consecutive plays in college football history.) And because of the players’ eligibility situations, it now feels like an either/or proposition. It’s difficult to imagine either Hurts—who is 26–2 as a starter—or Tagovailoa accepting a spot-duty backup role that costs a precious year of eligibility that could be used as a starter somewhere else.

Tim Tebow was basically used as a battering ram in 2006, credited with 89 carries vs. only 33 passing attempts. The key difference here is that the superior passer was the senior, and using Tebow in that manner allowed him to get his feet wet as a true freshman. In Alabama’s case the better passer is the younger player in terms of eligibility, and is more than capable as a runner as well. Hard to see this happening here.

Some other stuff for you:

Look at the gap between Alabama and everybody else: It’s growing with each season of the College Football Playoff era. The Tide have made four straight Playoff appearances and have won two national titles during that stretch. That couples well with the pair of BCS national championships this decade. Nick Saban continues to churn out winners. Alabama has lost one regular-season game or fewer each of the last seven seasons. The next step is shooting for a perfect 15-0.

2018 would be a fine time to take that next step.

Four-star defensive end Antonio Alfano moved up one spot to the No. 44 player in the country and the No. 5 strong-side defensive end. Next in the 247Sports Rankings comes edge rusher Kevin Harris at No. 53 down from the No. 44 spots after The Opening. Despite the drop, 247Sports’ Barton Simmons thought Harris was one of the better performers among the Alabama commits at The Opening: “The traits are all there as he gets stronger and bigger at the next level. His edge speed was scary,” Simmons said.

Scary edge speed, eh? Looking forward to it.

Barrett Sallee thinks Damien Harris is wholly underappreciated, and I concur.

Haven’t read up much on this new AAF league, but this sounds like a smart strategy.

Each AAF team controls the rights to players from at least 13 college programs. For Birmingham, the colleges include 13 state schools as well as South Carolina, Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, North Carolina State, Maryland and Missouri. In addition to Alabama and Auburn, the state colleges on Birmingham’s assignment list include UAB, South Alabama, Troy, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, Samford, Miles, North Alabama, Tuskegee and West Alabama.

Giving the teams that kind of regional flavor should help put butts in the seats.

Last, some poor schlub decided to troll Eddie Lacy about his weight and, well...

Don’t do the man like that, Eddie.

That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.

Roll Tide.